Brigitte Reimann
Encyclopedia
Brigitte Reimann was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel Franziska Linkerhand.
. After graduating with the Abitur
, Reimann worked as teacher, bookseller and reporter. After 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
. She received the Heinrich Mann prize in 1964.
When troops of the Warsaw Pact
states invaded the ČSSR
on August 20, 1968 as a reaction to liberalisations during the Prague Spring
, Reimann refused to sign the declaration by the East German Writers' Association approving of the measure.
On February 22, 1973, Brigitte Reimann died of cancer at the age of 39.
Life
Brigitte Reimann 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 VolksbühneVolksbühne
The Volksbühne is a theater in Berlin, Germany. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in what was the GDR's capital....
. After graduating with the Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
, Reimann worked as teacher, bookseller and reporter. After 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
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
. She received the Heinrich Mann prize in 1964.
When troops of the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
states invaded the ČSSR
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....
on August 20, 1968 as a reaction to liberalisations during the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
, Reimann refused to sign the declaration by the East German Writers' Association approving of the measure.
On February 22, 1973, Brigitte Reimann died of cancer at the age of 39.
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)
- Franziska LinkerhandFranziska LinkerhandFranziska Linkerhand is a 1974 novel by Brigitte Reimann. During the last ten years of her life Reimann worked at this book. At the time of her death, the last, fifteenth chapter had just been started. In the following year the novel was published nonetheless, although in a heavily censored way...
(incomplete novel, 1974) - Das Mädchen auf der Lotosblume (incomplete novels, 2005)