Mother Courage and Her Children (1939) is a play by German author Bertolt Brecht (1898-1980). It tells the story of Anna Fierling, nicknamed Mother Courage, a peddler who travels across Europe during the Thirty Years’ War. It is a drama that questions the justification of warfare, revealing the hypocrisy of a war fought on religious grounds. As the war unfolds, Mother Courage struggles to keep her business afloat and her three children safe. The play interrogates themes such as Commerce in War, The Futility of Religion, and A Mother’s Duty to Her Children.

This guide refers to the 1991 Grove Press edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide contain references to rape.

Plot Summary

It is 1624 in Sweden, and the Thirty Years’ War is underway across Europe. Anna Fierling, a Protestant tradeswoman nicknamed “Mother Courage,” enters with her three children, who pull a wagon carrying her wares. A recruiting officer urges her oldest son, Eilif, to enlist. When Eilif is undeterred despite her protestations, she displays her fortune-telling abilities, but the cards predict that all three of her children will die in the war. Her other children, an unintelligent son nicknamed Swiss Cheese and a nonspeaking daughter named Kattrin, pull the wagon away without Eilif.

Months later, Mother Courage travels to Poland. While attempting to sell a capon to an army cook, she is reunited with Eilif. She is dismayed when she hears that her son has robbed and killed innocent peasants. She disagrees with the Commander, who deems Eilif brave and his actions justified.

Three years pass and the family continues across Europe. Swiss Cheese has become an army paymaster and is responsible for maintaining the cashbox. Mother Courage often sells alcohol to soldiers—and their superiors. A local sex worker named Yvette Pottier appears and Kattrin is taken with her red boots. Mother Courage cautions Kattrin against following in Yvette’s path, stressing the ways that men harm and take advantage of women. Suddenly, there is a surprise attack by the enemy (the Catholics). Mother Courage removes the Protestant flag from her wagon in an attempt to blend in and instructs Swiss Cheese to hide the cashbox so that it will not be stolen. Swiss Cheese foolishly hides it in the wagon.

Three days pass. Swiss Cheese worries that his sergeant will wonder where he is with the cashbox. A Protestant Chaplain who has taken up with Mother Courage worries because he cannot practice his religion around the enemy. Mother Courage pretends to be Catholic to keep her canteen in business and heads off in search of supplies. While she is gone, Swiss Cheese moves the cashbox to a hole near the river.

While Mother Courage is away, Swiss Cheese is captured by the enemy, who demand to know the cashbox’s whereabouts. Mother Courage, with the help of Yvette, devises a plan to pawn the wagon, then buy it back with the funds from the cashbox, then conduct another deal to ensure the release of Swiss Cheese. Her plan fails, however, when Swiss Cheese gives up the location of the cashbox to his captors and is killed. Yvette advises Mother Courage to deny any association with Swiss Cheese to remain safe. When soldiers appear carrying Swiss Cheese’s body, Mother Courage tells them she does not know the man.

Mother Courage continues on and visits an officer’s tent to file a complaint against the army for destroying her goods and issuing her a fine for trading. She waits her turn, but ultimately changes her mind about filing the complaint after listening to a soldier complain that his captain stole his reward money and spent it on brandy for himself.

Two years pass and the war continues. One day the Chaplain rushes to the wagon, demanding Mother Courage give him linen shirts to be used to bandage civilians who have been injured by enemy fire. Mother Courage protests, not wanting to waste expensive inventory. A year goes by and Kattrin is beaten by soldiers, her face disfigured. Mother Courage cleans her wounds and assures her that she is better off disfigured, as it makes her less attractive and thus less likely to be sexually assaulted. Despite the danger they face daily, Mother Courage fears the war’s end because it means she will have no way to support herself and Kattrin.

Years pass and the king of Sweden is killed, ending the war; Mother Courage hopes this news is not true as she has just restocked the wagon. She crosses paths with the Cook, to whom she sold the capon years ago. She complains to him about the Chaplain, whom she regrets allowing to tag along. Yvette appears and informs Mother Courage that she too knows the Cook, who once sexually assaulted her. Mother Courage and Yvette head off to sell the goods quickly before the news of the war’s end spreads and prices drop.

While they are gone, Eilif appears, carried by several soldiers. He wants to see Mother Courage but is being punished for plundering during peacetime. Eager to tell her of the brave deeds he has done, he assures himself he will see her again.

Peace is short-lived, and the war starts up again. Winter arrives early and food is scarce, the fields having been ravished and neglected. The Cook, who was fired from his position, has taken up with Mother Courage. He has received a letter informing him that his mother died of cholera and the inn she owned now belongs to him. He invites Mother Courage to go into business there with him but rescinds his offer when she demands he let Kattrin come with them. While the Cook is off begging for food, she removes his belongings from the wagon and leaves him behind.

Mother Courage and Kattrin continue alone, pulling the wagon across Germany, though no one has money to buy anything or food to spare for beggars. They come upon a farmhouse, and Mother Courage leaves Kattrin to look for stock to sell. While Mother Courage is gone, enemy soldiers arrive and threaten the farmer and his wife. When the soldiers leave, the couple laments that the Catholics have advanced and speculate that they must have killed the watchman whose job it is to alert the town of imminent attacks. They urge Kattrin to pray with them, but instead, she sounds a drum. The couple pleads with her to stop, fearful of being discovered, but Kattrin only beats the drum more loudly. The farmer frantically begins to chop wood, hoping to drown out the sound of the drum, but his efforts are futile. Kattrin is shot by the enemy, but not before her drumming has alerted the town of the enemy’s presence.

Mother Courage returns to discover Kattrin’s body. The farmer and his wife urge her to leave and seek safety. They promise to bury Kattrin’s body and Mother Courage gives them some money to do so. Determined to carry on with her business, she insists she can pull the wagon herself. She calls out to the soldiers in the distance, asking them to take her with them.