Background
Bronnen was born in Vienna, Austria. His father was Jewish and his mother was Christian.
Bronnen was born in Vienna, Austria. His father was Jewish and his mother was Christian.
According to The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, the "erotic, anti-bourgeois, black expressionism" of the play "caused a sensation" when it was eventually performed. Bronnen also wrote Birth of Youth (Geburt der Jugend, 1922) and Die Excesse (1923). After having collaborated on film treatments and various theatrical projects together, in 1923 Bronnen and Brecht co-directed a condensed version of Pastor Ephraim Magnus (a nihilistic, Expressionist play, according to The Cambridge Guide, "stuffed with perversities and sado-masochistic motifs") by Hans Henny Jahnn.
Later in his life he wrote reportage plays.
Bronnen signed the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft, a "vow of most faithful allegiance" to Adolf Hitler in 1933. After the Second World War he became a communist.
Bronnen died in East Berlin and is buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery.