What is the social and historical context of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children?

Brecht is drawing much in way of historical parallel with
the outbreak of World War II.  While the play is set in the Thirty Years' War, the
overarching themes of the destructive nature of war and its commercial aspect are
significant elements in the drama.  The massive rearmament of Germany at the outset of
the Second World War helped to bring to light that war is, to quote Howard Zinn, "the
health of the state."  Germany's rise to economic and political power is done through
militarism and that those in the position of such power reap immediate benefits through
war.  Brecht was able to see this first hand and this becomes part of his
writing:

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Men of all ages were conscripted to
fight in the war. In 1930s Germany, every man between the ages of nineteen and
forty-five were deemed fit for military service, amounting to more than eight million
people in the army
alone.

These
individuals were not the power brokers nor were they in any position of wealth or
privilege.  While war was waged by those who were in such elevated states, the war was
fought by others, and these people, individuals who end up being nameless, are the
center-points of Brecht's work, giving voice to the voiceless.  In this light, the play
makes a very strong statement about war, the social and historical context that envelops
it and that it depicts.