About the work
Bertolt Brecht wrote this play fragment in the late 1920s as preparatory work for 'Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe' ('Saint Joan of the Stockyards'); it remained unfinished and unperformed in his lifetime. Only on 13 April 1967 did Manfred Karge and Matthias Langhoff bring a stage version assembled from the fragments, with music by Hans-Dieter Hosalla, to its premiere at the Berliner Ensemble.
Plot
During the Great Depression, the widowed Niobe Queck and her seven children are evicted from their flat. She tries to survive through a Salvation Army firewood-distribution scheme while unemployed people compete for the scarce handouts and aid efforts fail. The rebel Washington Meyer embodies a revolt against these conditions that ultimately fails.
Cultural significance
In the fragment, Brecht exposes the Salvation Army as an institution that stabilises the capitalist system rather than challenging it, lending everyday hardship epic weight through allusions to antique material. The play illustrates how playable stage versions were later assembled from Brecht's unfinished fragments.