Weigel was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the daughter of Leopoldine (née Pollak) and Siegfried Weigel, an accountant-general in a textile factory.^[1] Her family was Jewish.^[1] She and husband Brecht had two children, Stefan Brecht and Barbara Brecht-Schall. Weigel was a Communist Party member from 1930.^[1]

Weigel became the artistic director of the Berliner Ensemble on 16 February 1949.^{[citation needed]} She is best remembered for creating several Brecht roles, including: Pelagea Vlassova, The Mother of 1932; Antigone in Brecht's version of the Greek tragedy; the title role in his civil war play, Señora Carrar's Rifles; and the iconic Mother Courage.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1933 and 1947, as a refugee from Adolf Hitler's Germany, she was seldom able to pursue her acting craft, even during the family's six-year period in Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]} It was only with the foundation of the Berliner Ensemble in East Germany in 1949 that Brecht's theatre began to be recognized worldwide.^{[citation needed]} She died in 1971, still at the helm of the company, and many of the roles that she created with Brecht are still in the theatre's repertoire today.^{[citation needed]}

Weigel died in East Berlin on 6 May 1971, six days before her 71st birthday.^[1]

• Ingrid Pitt, British-Polish actress

• Berliner Ensemble
• Jennifer Marston Willia, Biography of Helene Weigel, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
• Helene Weigel at IMDb