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Bertolt Brecht. Werke: Grobe kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe. 96: Journale I (1913-1941). Werner Hecht et al., eds. Berlin/Frankfurt a.M. Aumau/Suhrkamp. 1994. 689 pages, ill. DM 88. ISBN 3-351-02048-1.
Frankly, I had not expected to find any hitherto unpublished texts, let alone any textual changes, in an edition which so programmatically emphasizes as its distinctive feature the simple fact that it contains commentaries. Amazingly enough, however, several new texts and some pertinent changes, or rearrangements, do await the general reader as well as the specialist in volume 26 of the Grobe kommentierte Berlin und Frankfurter Ausgab of the Brechtian oeuvre.
It is true, the bulk of Journale I consists of familiar textual material that has been easily accessible for years: to wit, the "Tagebucher 1913-1922," the "Journale 1938-1941" (better known as Brecht's Abeits journal, of which the respective portion forms the first part), and the vast majority of the "Autobiographische Notizen 1919-1941." Still, there are at least snippets of additional texts ranging from a single sentence to a full page--roughly, five to six pages altogether--that have been inserted, expressly marked "ED
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: Vorliegende Ausgabe," in the section titled "Autobiographische Notizen 1921 bis 1938." Far...