Gisela Karau (birth name: Wilczynski; 28 March 1932 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

– 9 April 2010 in Berlin) was an East

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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 ...

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 ...

. Born in Berlin, she was married and had two children.

Life

Gisela Karau was born in Berlin 1932. After finishing her school leaving examination in 1950 she began a five-year job training at the newspaper '' BZ am Abend''. She worked as a reporter and a columnist for that newspaper until 1990 on a freelance basis. In the 1960s she began writing children's literature. Her first work was the novel ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.'' (1972). The book is about the fate of Polish children in

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

. The book became famous and was also reprinted after 1990. Other popular children's books in the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

written by Gisela Karau include ''Darf ich Wilhelm zu Dir sagen?'' (1979) about Wilhelm Pieck's life and ''Loni'' (1982) about a girl in Berlin a few years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Furthermore, she wrote the screenplays of many children's films produced by DEFA, the state-owned film studio. The film ''Mein blauer Vogel fliegt'' was based on ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.''. She also published books for adults, like the novels ''Berliner Liebe'' (1984) and ''Familienkrach'' (1988) in the GDR. In 1986, Karau was awarded the Goethe prize of the City of Berlin. After the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

she wrote some novels about the destiny of people in the GDR, in the Wende and in the

New states of Germany The new states of Germany () are the five re-established states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) that unified with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with its 10 states upon German reunification on 3 October 1990. The new st ...

after 1990. She also published more children's books like ''Bolle, der freundliche Hund'' (1994), ''Küsse auf Eis '' (1997) and ''Das kommt in der besten Familie vor'' (2003). Gisela Karau married Günter Karau, with whom she had two children. After the death of her first husband in 1986, she married Hans-Jürgen Dörry, 18 years her junior, in 1988. She died in 2010 in a Berlin hospital.

Works (selection)

; Children's literature: * ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1972 (The good star of Janusz K.) * ''Darf ich Wilhelm zu Dir sagen?'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1979 (Can I call you Wilhelm?) * ''Loni.'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1982 * ''Bolle, der freundliche Hund.'' Kiro-Verlag, Schwedt 1994 (Bolle, the friendly dog) * ''Küsse auf Eis.'' Karl-Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1997 (Kisses on ice) * ''Das kommt in der besten Familie vor.'' Cecilie-Dressler-Verlag, Hamburg 2003 * ''Toni und Ali. Bilder einer Jugendliebe.'' Edition Hamouda, Leipzig 2007 * ''Cosima. Verliebt in Sanssouci.'' Edition Hamouda, Leipzig 2007 ; Novels: * ''Berliner Liebe.'' Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1984 (Berlin love) * ''Familienkrach.'' Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1988 (Family quarrel) * ''Ein gemachter Mann.'' Verlag Neues Leben, 1991 (A made man) * ''Marthas Haus oder Der Kopf im Keller.'' Kiro-Verlag, Schwedt 1994 (Martha's house or the head in the basement)

Literature

* Bernd-Rainer Barth, Andreas Kölling: Karau, Gisela. In: Wer war wer in der DDR? 4. Ausgabe. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, , Band 1, S. 485. (Who was who in the

References

Catalogue of the German National Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karau, Gisela 1932 births 2010 deaths German women writers