The series of writings by Eisler begins with a theme that is just as timely and engrossing today as it was fifty years ago: Hanns Eisler's abortive opera project "Johann Faustus." The essays of the 2002 Berlin Congress shed light on various aspects of Eisler's ambitious plan, from his text montage and musical conception to the controversy of the "Faustus debate". The essays present "Faustus" in the context of the cultural-political vision of a "German national opera" and the political situation shortly before the uprisings in East Germany in 1953.