ABSTRACT
Brasch was born in Britain, where his Jewish communist parents spent the war years. His early life in the GDR, where his father became a prominent SED functionary, was marked by the conflict of a vital, anarchistic talent with prevailing aesthetic and social norms and is partly reflected in variations on the generation gap (Vor den Vätern sterben die Söhne (1977)). A resemblance to Büchner, expressionism and the early Brecht is apparent in the poems (eventually published in Der schöne 27. September (1980)), prose (Vor den Vätern and Kargo (1977), both collections of anecdotal prose fragments) and dramas Brasch brought with him to the West in 1976 following the expatriation of Wolf Biermann. The play Rotter (1977) concerns the self-imposed conformity of an underprivileged figure determined to prove himself in both the Third Reich and the early years of reconstruction. Brasch’s treatment of a common theme of GDR literature owes much to Heiner Müller and a dramatic tradition which includes surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty in its development of possibilities beyond Brecht’s epic theatre. The move to the West has not resulted in any firm political commitments and the rebellion of Brasch’s characters, many of whom are disturbed artists, drop-outs and criminals (the poet Georg Heym in Lieber Georg (1980), Lackner in Rotter, Rita in Lovely Rita (1977)), is more existentially than politically motivated. Brasch has more recently concentrated on adaptations (Shakespeare, Chekhov) and films (Engel aus Eisen (1981), Domino (1982), Welcome to GermanylDer Passagier (1988)). Liebe macht Tod (1990) is a variation of Romeo and Juliet.
