“Once the general attack on the economic and political positions of the German and Italian workers showed itself to be effective, once the freedom to organize in unions and the freedom of the press, and once democracy found itself gagged, the attack on culture was crowned with success.”

(…)

Culture, which has for so long – for too long – had only the weapons of the intelligence to defend it against the material weapons of the aggressors, that culture is itself not only an emanation of the spirit but also and above all a material thing. And it is with material weapons that it must be defended.

Bertolt Brecht, Speech at the Second Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, 1937

 Bertolt Brecht, Paris, 1935

Photo: Gisèle Freund

Valuable photographs and text by Gisèle Freund, photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists.

International Congress for the Defense of Culture, Paris, 1935.