Brecht's anniversary is being marked in Germany

Germany is marking the centenary of the birth of Bertolt Brecht -- the poet and playwright whose Marxist ideas caused great controversy among his fellow Germans.

President Roman Herzog is leading tributes at an official ceremony in Berlin, while theatres across the country are showing his works, which include such classics as "Threepenny Opera", "Mother Courage and her Children" and "The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui".

Brecht wrote most of his works in exile first in Scandinavia and then the United States after Hitler gained power in 1933.

On his return, he settled in Communist East Germany where the authorities offered him a theatre of his own.

He died in East Berlin in 1956.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service