Brigitte Reimann (born 21 July 1933,

Burg bei Magdeburg Burg (also known as Burg bei Magdeburg to distinguish from other places with the same name) is a town of about 22,400 inhabitants on the Elbe–Havel Canal in northeastern Germany, northeast of Magdeburg. It is the capital of the Jerichower Land ...

, d. 22 February 1973,

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

) was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel ''

Franziska Linkerhand ''Franziska Linkerhand'' is a 1974 novel by Brigitte Reimann Brigitte Reimann (born 21 July 1933, Burg bei Magdeburg, d. 22 February 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel ''Franziska Li ...

''.

Life

Brigitte Reimann was the daughter of Willi Reimann (1904–1990) and Elisabeth (1905–1992) and the oldest of four children. She wrote her first amateur play at the age of fifteen. In 1950 she was awarded the first prize in an amateur drama competition by the Berlin theater

Volksbühne The Volksbühne ("People's Theatre") is a theater in Berlin. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa Luxemburg Square) in what was the GDR's capital. It has been called Berlin's most iconic theatre. About The Vol ...

. After graduating with the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, Reimann worked as teacher, bookseller and reporter.Meid, Volker: Reclams Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Autoren, Stuttgart, 2001 Following a miscarriage in 1954, Reimann attempted suicide. In 1960 she started to work at the brown coal mine Schwarze Pumpe, where she and her second husband Siegfried Pitschmann headed a circle of writing workers. There, she wrote the narrative ''Ankunft im Alltag'', which is regarded as a masterpiece of

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

. She received the Heinrich Mann prize in 1964. When troops of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

states invaded the

ČSSR The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

on 20 August 1968 as a reaction to liberalisations during the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

, Reimann refused to sign the declaration by the East German Writers' Association (DSV) approving of the measure. On 22 February 1973, Brigitte Reimann died of cancer at the age of 39. Her 1963 novel, ''Siblings'' (''Die Geshwister''), was first published in Italian translation in 2013 (by Monica Pesetti for Voland) and in English in February 2023 for Penguin.

Works

*''Katja. Eine Liebesgeschichte aus unseren Tagen'' (1953) *''Der Legionär'' (1955) *''Zwei schreiben eine Geschichte'' (1955) *''Die Frau am Pranger'' (1956) *''Die Kinder von Hellas'' (1956) *''Das Geständnis'' (1960) *''Ein Mann steht vor der Tür'' (1960) *''Ankunft im Alltag'' (1961) *''Sieben Scheffel Salz'' (1961) *''Im Kombinat'' (1963) *''Die Geschwister'' (1963) *''Das grüne Licht der Steppen'' (1965) *''Sonntag, den ...'' (1970) *''

'' (incomplete novel, 1974) *''Das Mädchen auf der Lotosblume'' (incomplete novels, 2005) *''I Have No Regrets — Diaries, 1955–1963, translated by Lucy Jones''

References

Links

Gravesite where Riemann was reburied in 2019Brigitte Reimann Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimann, Brigitte 1933 births 1973 deaths People from Burg bei Magdeburg People from the Province of Saxony East German writers East German women Writers from Saxony-Anhalt 20th-century German women writers Heinrich Mann Prize winners