The editors of this first study of Brecht's work and legacy in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) have produced an illuminating volume which focuses on the question ‘what becomes of the socialist icon after the end of the socialist state’ (p. 1), arguing that the collapse of the GDR has not invalidated Brecht's socialist critique and indeed his role as one of the most influential writers and theatre practitioners of the twentieth century. While this claim may not be surprising given the focus of this volume, its authors successfully investigate the Brecht phenomenon in a wider context. The book is usefully divided into three major parts, ‘Brecht in the GDR’, ‘The Management of Brecht's Legacy’, and ‘Creative Responses to Brecht's Work’, and one of its through-lines is the complex relationship between Brecht and the GDR both during his lifetime and after his death. Although he was clearly an asset and vital for GDR identity he was also seen as a ‘loose cannon’, as Bradley makes clear in her introduction (p. 4).

In his essay on Brecht's theatrical practice at his theatre, the Berliner Ensemble (BE), David Barnett argues that Brecht was much less dogmatic than some commentators have thought and was in fact open to changes, an approach which led to ‘very different types of performance’ (p. 28). Karin Leeder then looks at Brecht's poetic writing in the 1950s and shortly before his death. She questions established notions of ‘late work’ in the light of theories of lateness, particularly Edward Said, and concludes that Brecht's late poetry does not map onto conventional ideas of ‘late style’ (p. 60). In his contribution Stephen Parker investigates speculations around a possible link between ‘Brecht's health and SED pressure on him’ (p. 66), using new medical evidence. Parker concludes that although Brecht suffered health problems throughout his life, the political pressures within the GDR ‘served to curtail Brecht's life's work’ (p. 79). In the following fascinating essay Patrick Harkin looks at Brecht and 17 June 1953, the day of the workers’ uprising in East Berlin. Brecht has hitherto often been seen as complicit and as defending the GDR government, but Harkin shows that the situation is more complex and that behind the scenes Brecht was very critical of official policy. In fact, Brecht's texts from 1953 ‘attacked the Party's cultural policies and demanded reform’ (p. 97). Erdmut Wizisla then concentrates on critical junctures between private and public in relation to the Brecht archive. Helene Weigel, who had established the archive, successfully fought off state intervention until her death in 1971, but others, like Hans Bunge, wanted to curtail the influence of Brecht's heirs and establish state supervision – top of the agenda for GDR officials, too. Despite this interest in controlling Brecht's legacy, however, the party never attempted to take full control of the important Brecht anniversaries at the BE, which Laura Bradley discusses. Nevertheless, these left the BE under immense pressure to satisfy different and often competing demands. Paula Hanssen's essay focuses on Elisabeth Hauptmann and argues that her influence on and contributions to Brecht's work remained substantial during the GDR but continued to be ignored. However, the interesting question why this situation persisted in a different political context is not addressed here. Joy Calico continues with a contribution on the literary and musical responses to Brecht's death by two of his closest musical collaborators, Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau, and finds that their responses reflected their own personal relationships with Brecht. Whereas Eisler's commemorations are more ‘conventional modes of lament’ (p. 177), Dessau's ‘In Memoriam’ illustrates his complicated relationship with Brecht. Staying with the musical theme, David Robb looks at Brecht's legacy and argues that iconic GDR musicians and groups like Wolf Biermann and Karls Enkel ‘identified with the grotesque aspects of the early Brecht material’, which projected ‘a different Brecht from the official image that the SED preferred to propagate’ (p. 197). Moray McGowan then discusses Brecht's Fatzer, a complex play which proved tricky for the GDR regime but which, not least through Heiner Müller's adaptation, acquired new significance from the late 1980s onwards. In fact McGowan persuasively argues that Fatzer has ‘not lost any of its relevance’ today (p. 218). In a similar vein Loren Kruger discusses the current revival of Brecht's anticapitalist plays in an ‘unevenly united country’ (p. 223). In an era marked by an aggressive transnational capitalism, ‘Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe’ has met with a remarkable renewed interest.

Overall, this compelling volume offers new insights into Brecht's legacy during the GDR and should invite further research not only into Brecht but also into GDR cultural policy.