Although the work of the young Bertolt Brecht used to be neglected by literary and theater scholars, it has attracted growing attention. Brecht's early work - including the work that he did in his teens as a schoolboy in Augsburg - is far too complex and differentiated simply to be written off as a proto-Marxist phase paving the way for the "classic" Brecht. The contributions to this volume show the ambitious young man in a field of tension between his radical questioning of moral, religious, and literary authorities and his unconditional will to become a famous writer, even if it meant making significant compromises. The volume explores the young Brecht in a multifaceted, complex way, and its authors - Reinhold Grimm, Jan Knopf, James K. Lyon, and others - take different, sometimes conflicting, positions about the writer. Published for the first time are two previously unknown texts by the young Brecht.