The writer Bertolt Brecht was a tireless diarist. In addition to his private diaries, he also kept a work diary, which his wife Helene Weigel later designated his Arbeitsjournal [work diary]. He used this to collect materials. He noted play projects, responses to his reading materials and commented on the political events of the day. He supplemented his entries with photographs and newspaper cuttings. He also recorded his memories of conversations with colleagues, some of whom also lived in exile: words of praise for his friend, the writer Lion Feuchtwanger or cutting remarks on the writer Thomas Mann, with whom Brecht did not get along.

Brecht also used his work diary to record the extent to which his exile impaired his writing work. For example he noted how he had begun work on his play Der gute Mensch von Sezuan [The Good Person of Szechwan], but had been unable to continue it in Denmark and Sweden and was hoping for better working conditions in Finland.

His work diary remained unpublished for a long time. Helene Weigel delayed its publication because she believed that it contained too much criticism of living persons. It was published in 1973 by the Suhrkamp and Aufbau publishing houses.