In this poem, which was written in exile in Denmark in 1939, the writer Bertolt Brecht depicts himself as a political refugee who had been “driven out” of Nazi Germany “with good reason”.

He describes the reasons why he was persecuted as follows:

“and their informers told them that I sit with those who have been robbed when they / are planning the uprising. They warned me and took away everything I earned through my work. And when I did not improve my ways, they hunted me, but by then / all that was left in my house were writings, which revealed / their assaults against the people.” (ed. trans.)

Because he wrote Marxist teachings and works like the 1931 Ballad of the SA Man which criticised the Nazis, Brecht very soon became an unpopular figure with the Nazis disrupting his theatre performances from 1930 onwards. As one dispatch from Berlin’s police to the party headquarters of the NSDAP shows, Brecht was already branded a “staunch communist” in 1932 and thus seen to be a danger for the Nazi movement. Brecht also wanted to remain dangerous for the Nazi dictatorship throughout his period in exile. He wrote anti-fascist works like the plays The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which was published in 1941 and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich from 1943.

His solidarity with the common people is described in the poem as the reason for his persecution, but also the reason for his escape: “[...] but the have-nots [...]  grant me sanctuary.”