Helga Schubert (pseudonym for Helga Helm, born 7 January 1940 in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
) is a German psychologist and
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
.
Life
Helga Schubert is a daughter of a
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...
, who was also active in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
, and of a
Gerichtsassessor
In the German legal system, the obsolete designation Gerichtsassessor was held by judges or federal prosecutors, whose employment status today would be "on probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, orde ...
who died as a soldier in 1941; she grew up in
East Berlin. Schubert completed her ''Reifeprüfung'' (secondary school examination) and afterwards worked for a year on the
assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in se ...
in an industrial plant in Berlin. From 1958 to 1963, she studied psychology at
Humboldt University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiati ...
and obtained a diploma in psychology. From 1963 to 1977, she was a full-time
clinical psychologist; until 1973, she worked in adult
psychotherapy. From 1973 to 1977, she studied for a PhD at Humboldt University but did not obtain the doctorate. From 1977 until 1987, she was active as a conversational therapist () at a marital-counseling center in Berlin. During that period, she worked part-time as a psychologist and also as an author. From December 1989 until March 1990, she was a non-partisan press spokeswoman of the
East German Round Table
Round table primarily refers to the Central Round Table (''Zentraler Runder Tisch''), a series of meetings during the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany in late-1989 and early-1990.
The Round table first convened in East Berlin on 7 December ...
in East Berlin. Today she lives with painter and leading clinical psychologist in Neu Meteln, a parish of
Alt Meteln near
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...
—also known as (Artist Colony Drispeth).
Schubert, who had wanted to write since she was in her twenties, published a series of
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
and prose that portrayed everyday life in East Germany. She also wrote theater dramas, radio dramas, television plays, and movie scenarios. After the
German reunification, she became known for her documentary work "Judasfrauen," which dealt with denunciation in the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, based on archival work.
[Cynthia Apel (1995): ''Helga Schubert's Judasfrauen: The Use of Narrative in Documentary Literature''. Focus on Literatur, vol. 02, No. 02 (Fall 1995), pp. 139–147] Schubert, who belonged to the
Schriftstellerverband der DDR (Writer's Association of East Germany) from 1976 and
PEN
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
Centre of East Germany from 1987, moved to
PEN Centre Germany
PEN Centre Germany is part of the worldwide association of writers founded in London in 1921, now known as PEN International. One of over 140 autonomous PEN centres around the world, PEN Centre Germany is based in Darmstadt, Hesse.
Work
PEN C ...
in 1991. She received the following awards, among others: 1982 Script Prize at the second National Film Festival of the DDR for (The Worry), 1983
Heinrich Greif Prize, 1986
Heinrich Mann Prize, 1991
Honorary Doctorate-Doctor of Humane Letters from
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...
, 1993
Hans Fallada Prize
The Hans Fallada Prize is a German literary prize given by the city of Neumünster in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Since 1981 it typically awarded every two years to a young author from the German-speaking world. It is named in honor o ...
, and 2020
Ingeborg Bachmann Prize
The Festival of German-Language Literature (german: Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, links=no) is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of ...
.
Works
* (A Lot of Lives), Berlin 1975
* (Bimmi and the Highrise Ghost), Berlin 1980
* (Bimmi and the Victoria A), Berlin 1981 (together with Jutta Kirschner)
* (The Worry), Berlin 1982
* (Bimmi and the Black Day), Berlin 1982 (with Jutta Kirschner)
* (The Forbidden Room), Darmstadt
t al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
1982
* (Bimmi and Her Afternoon), Berlin 1984 (with Jutta Kirschner)
* (Point of View), Berlin
. a.1984
* (Anna Can Speak German), Darmstadt
t al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
1985
* (And Again Tomorrow ...), Berlin 1985
* (Beautiful Trip), Berlin
. a.1988
* (Speak about Feelings?), Berlin 1988
* (Do Women Go Down on Their Knees?), Zürich 1990 (with
Rita Süssmuth
Rita Süssmuth ( ''née'' Kickuth; ; born 17 February 1937) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She served as the 10th President of the Bundestag.
From 1985 to 1988, she served as Federal Minister for Youth, Family ...
)
* (Judas Women. Ten Case Stories of Female Denunciation in the Third Reich), Berlin 1990
* (Do Women Pay for Reunification?), Munich
t al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
1992 (with Rita Süssmuth)
* (Bimmi of the Highrise), Berlin 1992 (with Cleo-Petra Kurze)
* (The Dissenter), Munich 1994
* (The Cracked Heart), Munich 1995
* (The World Inside), Frankfurt am Main 2003
Literature
* Alessandro Bigarelli: (Ethics and Discourse in Women's Writing as Exemplified in Helga Schubert's Stories), Frankfurt a. M., Lang, 1998.
References
External links
*
Author Circle of Germany - Schubert page(German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schubert, Helga
1940 births
Writers from Berlin
Living people
Heinrich Mann Prize winners
German women writers
German women psychologists
Recipients of the Heinrich Greif Prize
Ingeborg Bachmann Prize winners