The apartment on Chausseestraße 125 was the last place Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel lived and worked. Brecht, an author and playwright, and Weigel, an actress and creative director, enjoyed the building's proximity to the Berliner Ensemble and the view of the neighbouring Dorotheenstädtische Cemetery with its graves of famous artists and philosophers. They rented two flats here: Brecht lived on the first floor of the side and back wing of the building from October 1953 to his death on 14 August 1956. The apartment offered him enough room for a number of work spaces and for discussions with students. Today, the flat is home to Brecht's library with roughly 4,000 volumes available to users of the Bertolt Brecht Archives.
Helene Weigel first lived in a flat on the second floor of the side wing, which she made available after Brecht's death to the Bertolt Brecht Archives she founded. In 1957, she moved into a flat on the ground floor, where she died on 6 May 1971.
The original rooms have functioned as a memorial site since 1978. Visitors can see the rooms as part of a guided tour.

The Brecht Weigel Museum (formerly named Brecht-Weigel-Gedenkstätte, now Brecht-Weigel-Museum) is an institution operated by the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Künste).