Berlin: A Threepenny Tragedy

Shy, sensitive Christian Weisbrod, at 26, had a bright future on the East German stage. He was the youngest member of the eminent Berliner Ensemble, the theater company famed for its productions of Bertolt Brecht's acid satires. Yet Weisbrod was not happy.

He longed for the freer life, and just as the Berliner Ensemble was completing a triumphant London engagement, he chose to defect. He easily received a West German passport, a temporary home with his married half-brother outside Cologne, even a job offer. Yet, only eight days after he arrived in the Rhineland's Lorelei-land, he returned...

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