Ruth Berlau
Ruth Berlau (24 August 1906, Charlottenlund – 15 January 1974, East Berlin) was a Danish actress, director, photographer and writer, known for her collaboration with Bertolt Brecht and for founding the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin. • Illustration — Headstone in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof Berlin Born to a merchant family, she learned French at a convent school, but had to drop out due to a pregnancy at the age of thirteen. She studied acting and established her Danish reputation playing Anna in Brecht's Drums in the Night. During her teenage years, she financed a bicycle tour of France, by writing up a somewhat fictionalized account of her travels for a Danish newspaper.
Ruth Berlau
Hilda Hoffmann · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1906. · Copenhagen.
- Died
- 1974. · East Berlin.
- Nationality
- Germany and Kingdom of Denmark.
- Occupation
- actress, writer, literary critic, photographer, director and translator.
- Fields
- acting, directing, photography and Danish literature.
- Languages
- Danish and German.
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Documentary summary
Ruth Berlau (24 August 1906, Charlottenlund – 15 January 1974, East Berlin) was a Danish actress, director, photographer and writer, known for her collaboration with Bertolt Brecht and for founding the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin. • Illustration — Headstone in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof Berlin Born to a merchant family, she learned French at a convent school, but had to drop out due to a pregnancy at the age of thirteen. She studied acting and established her Danish reputation playing Anna in Brecht's Drums in the Night. During her teenage years, she financed a bicycle tour of France, by writing up a somewhat fictionalized account of her travels for a Danish newspaper.
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wikidata · Q72129 · wikipedia · Ruth Berlau
In this article
Death
Death
In 1930, she toured the Soviet Union by bicycle, and on her return joined the Communist Party of Denmark. Later she took part behind the front lines in the Spanish Civil War. In 1933, she presented herself to the newly arrived Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel, then staying on Fyn or Thurø and within two years had become his lover. In 1936 or 1939, she divorced her husband, Dr. Robert Lund, and threw herself into a collaboration with Brecht, acting as a secretary as well as writing, translating, photographing and directing. In 1940, she followed the Brecht clan to Sweden, Finland, the USSR and finally to the United States, where a rupture with Brecht took place in 1944. After the war, she followed the Brechts to Berlin, but was blacklisted from the Berliner Ensemble by Weigel after Brecht's death in 1956.
She died at age 67 in the Charité hospital after setting her bed alight with a cigarette.
Identity
Identity
Ruth Berlau is recorded with the occupation literary critic. Recorded as actress, writer, literary critic, photographer and director.
Actors: Sigrid Neiiendam (Sigrid Marie Elisabeth), Augusta Blad, Ellen Reenberg (Ellen Carla Maria), Gudrun Houlberg, Karen Berg, Ruth Berlau og Jonna Neiiendam (Ebba Kaja Jonna)
Holger Damgaard · https: obj_id=1951796 locale=da search_field=all_fields q=berlau notBefore= notAfter=
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1906
Ruth Berlau was born on 24 August 1906.
1974
Ruth Berlau died on 16 January 1974.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Copenhagen.
Birth place
East Berlin.
Death place
Writings
• Brechts Lai-Tu. Erinnerungen und Notate. Hrsg. und mit einem Nachwort von Hans Bunge. Gudrun Bunge (Mitarbeit). Sammlung Luchterhand. Bd 698, Darmstadt, Neuwied, Luchterhand 1987, • Jedes Tier kann es. Erzählungen. Mit einem Nachwort von Klaus Völker. Mannheim, Persona-Verlag 1989, (originally published as Maria Sten (pseud.): Ethvert dyr kan det, København, Arthur Jensens Forlag, 1940)
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q72129: Ruth BerlauWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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