Kalendergeschichten

Kalendergeschichten, an anthology of prose and verse by B. Brecht, published in 1949, and including the short stories Der Augsburger Kreidekreis, Die zwei Söhne, which is set in the 1939-45 War, Das Experiment, dealing with Francis Bacon and a pupil (the original title was Der Stalljunge), Der Mantel des Ketzers (the coat is that of Giordano Bruno who was condemned by the Inquisition in 1600 and burnt at the stake as a heretic), Cäsar und sein Legionär (on the subject of the dictator and related to Brecht's unfinished novel Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar), Der verwundete Sokrates, which is an adaptation of the play Der gerettete Alkibiades (1920) by G. Kaiser, Die unwürdige Greisin, and some Geschichten vom Herrn Keuner. The verse contributions include Gleichnis des Buddha vom brennenden Haus, Kinderkreuzzug 1939, for which Benjamin Britten wrote a cantata (Children's Crusade, first performed in May 1969), and the superbly balanced Legende von der Entstehung des Buches Taoteking auf dem Wege des Laotse in die Emigration (1939).