First published in German under the title: Kriegsfibel. Berlin: Eulenspiegel, 1955.


In 1917 Brecht enrolled as a medical student at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After military service as a medical orderly, he returned to his studies, but abandoned them in 1921.

rom 1914 he wrote poetry, short prose and literary reviews for the local newspaper, some of these early publications are infused with the patriotic fervour which had broken out across Europe in 1914. However, as the First World War became a bloody war of attrition, Brecht’s views changed. He was strengthened in his pacifism by his work as a medical orderly in an Augsburg military hospital, where he witnessed the suffering of the wounded. The turn away from jingoistic pro-war clamor is reflected in his “Legende vom toten Soldaten” [“The Legend of the Dead Soldier”, 1918], a poem which attacks the cynicism and irresponsibility of officers and clergy and the naïve war enthusiasm of the German population.


Brecht was fiercely nationalistic as a young man, but that changed during World War I. He worked for a brief time at a military hospital, and the experience was profound. Brecht said, "I saw with my own eyes how they patched up people so as to ship them back to the front as soon as possible." And so, Brecht wrote the poem "The Legend of the Dead Soldier," which was critical of this practice.