The play ran from 1959 to 1961, with Manfred Wekwerth and Peter Palitzsch directing, and stars Helene Weigel in the title role; it was modelled after the original 1949 production by Brecht and Erich Engel.

Bertolt Brecht had directed his play Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder with the Berliner Ensemble, together with Erich Engel, in 1949.

[1] After Brecht's death, the film Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder was intended to be a faithful rendering of this production on stage.

[citation needed] Henryk Keisch [de] wrote in the daily paper Neues Deutschland that the film was a faithful reproduction of the staging which had already been performed 400 times at the theatre of the Berliner Ensemble.

[6] Helmut Ullrich of Die Neue Zeit noted that facial expressions were dominant compared with a stage production of the same actors.