Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956. Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder

Mother Courage and Her Children (German: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin. The name is based on its eponymous character, Mother Courage. Four theatrical productions were mounted in Switzerland and Germany between 1941 and 1952, the last three supervised or directed by Brecht, who had returned to East Germany from the United States. Several years after Brecht's death in 1956, the play was adapted as a German film, Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1961), starring Helene Weigel, Brecht's widow and a leading actress. Several critics regard the play as the greatest of the 20th century.