Brecht went to school in Augsburg, where his father was the director of a paper factory.
He completed his degree in 1917.
Afterwards he studied sciences, medicine and literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. He had to take a break in his studies because he had to join the army.
In the 1920s, Brecht went to Berlin and became a part of the cultural scene. He met his second wife Helene Weigel in Berlin and married her, after divorcing his first wife. It was with his second wife that Brecht had another son.
In Berlin he met a lot of artists and intellectuals of the Weimar Republic.
His works became very critical about the capitalistic society (e.g. "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" (1930)). Many of his friends were communists, but he never joined the KPD.
His most famous work was from that time, the "Dreigroschenoper".
For the next five years he lived in Denmark. In 1938 he wrote "Das Leben des Galilei" (The Life of Galilei) about Galileo Galilei, who was hunted by the Holy Inquisition because he wanted to tell the scientific truth.
When Germany occupied Denmark he had to flee once again.
He went to Sweden, then to Finland and finally to Moscow in the Soviet Union.
Even under Stalin he was not safe. He therefore flew through China to the United States.
He lived and worked in California and translated a lot of text.
In 1947, in the McCarthy era, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated him, because they suspected him of being a communist.
He gave a statement and said that he had never been a member of the communist party.
He then flew back to Switzerland - the only place he could go to at the time.
In 1948 he was allowed to return to Berlin, East Berlin.
He was an important writer and director for the young East Germany.
After the workers' protest on June 17 1953, Brecht complained about the Eastern German government which landed him into some trouble. From that point on he got more and more isolated.
Die Gedichte in einem Band. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN3-518-02269-5
Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe. Aufbau Verlag u. a., Berlin u. a. 1988–2000, ISBN3-351-00601-2, 30 Bände [1]
Geschichten vom Herrn Keuner. Zürcher Fassung. Herausgegeben von Erdmut Wizisla. Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2004. ISBN3-518-41660-X (Enthält erstmals veröffentlichte Geschichten aus einem Zürcher Fund im Jahr 2000.)