Dienstmagd und Diva: Brechts "Kindesmörderin Marie Farrar"

"Von der Kindesmörderin Marie Farrar," written in 1922, is among the best-known poems in the "Hauspostille." Over the decades, research has not been able to decode with certainty Brecht's presumed allusion behind 'Marie Farrar,' due to a missing connection to any person or event. Using the name Geraldine Farrar, one of the most important sopranos of her time, who achieved worldwide fame as Carmen in Bizet's opera of the same name, Brecht creates a link to Marianne Zoff, who had been a singer at the municipal theatre of Augsburg at the time and who would later become his first wife. This reveals a special "Augsburg-based layer" of highly artificial poetry, reflecting the existential situation of the problematic relation between the writer and the opera singer. It touches of Zoff's two pregnancies from the years 1921 and 1922, and on the conflicts resulting from the question of whether she should have a child with Brecht or instead have an abortion. This reference also enables the date of origin of this poem to be more clearly defined. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]