M.Ted has expressed my understanding of the German cabaret scene of the 20s and 30s probably better than I could have myself but I think I'd have also emphasised a willingness on the part of Eisler, Weill and Brecht to deal with the absurd and the surreal; juxtaposing these with classical training and elements of popular culture (some of which had elements of what we'd recognise as "folk") would have fitted into other aspects of the cultural context of Germany at that time.

It might be my own idiosyncracy but what I get from their productions seems very related to what I got from The Goons in the 50s and Monty Python in the 70s and I suspect that, if Leon Rosselson had been writing the music for these two latter events, the relationship might have been even stronger.

Cheers, Rowan