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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Ger 130

Bertolt Brecht correspondence with Karl Korsch

Overview

Correspondence of German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with Marxist theoretician Karl Korsch concerning books, other German political exiles, the Council for a Democratic Germany (N.Y.), as well as family and other personal matters.

Dates

  • Creation: 1934-1954

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in German.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 box)

Chiefly Korsch's correspondence, 1934-1948, with Brecht (17 items) and typed copies of Brecht's writings such as Die Tage der Kommune and Die Proletarische Dialektik. Also includes a photocopy of the Communist Manifesto annotated by Brecht; 3 letters from Helene Weigel to Korsch, 1945; and photo album entitled Die Kriegsbibel. Letters of Brecht (written mostly from Santa Monica, Calif. and Zurich) comment on books he was reading and his writing; other German political exiles; views on the Council for a Democratic Germany (N.Y.); and family and other personal matters. Papers are in German.

Biographical / Historical

Brecht was a German dramatist and poet. Karl Korsch was a Marxist theoretician.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. I. Correspondence
  2. II. Works and miscellaneous papers

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

58M-233. Purchased with the Coolidge Fund from Karl Korsch; received: 1958 December 29.

Title
Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956. Bertolt Brecht correspondence with Karl Korsch: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01182

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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