German theatre director who staged notable productions of the plays of Bertolt Brecht
Manfred Wekwerth, who has died aged 84, had a distinguished career as a theatre director in the German Democratic Republic and was recognised internationally as a key figure in the continuing development of Bertolt Brecht's work with the Berliner Ensemble after Brecht's death. He was also an astute operator in the field of cultural politics.
From 1982 to 1990 he was president of the Academy of Arts in East Berlin, as well as being a member of the central committee of the ruling Socialist Unity party. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the unification of the two Germanys, his identification with the failed regime became his achilles heel and he was removed from his post at the BE.
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