Brigitte Reimann

Infobox Writer
name = Brigitte Reimann
birthdate = Birth date|1933|07|21
birthplace = Burg bei Magdeburg
deathdate = Death date and age|1973|02|22|1933|07|21
deathplace = East Berlin
occupation = writer
nationality = German
period = 1953-1973
notableworks = "Franziska Linkerhand"
spouse = Günter Domnik (1953-1958)
Siegfried Pitschmann (1959-1964)
Jon K. (1964-1970)
Rudolf Burgartz (from 1971)
awards = awd|Heinrich Mann Prize|1965

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

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 comeptition by the Berlin theater Volksbühne. [http://www.brigittereimann.de/biographie_burg.php Biography at the website of the Brigitte Reimann Society] ] After graduating with the Abitur, Reimann worked as teacher, bookseller and reporter. Meid, Volker: Reclams Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Autoren, Stuttgart, 2001] . 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 writes the narrative "Ankunft im Alltag", which is regarded as a masterpiece of socialist realism.

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.

Franziska Linkerhand

During the last ten years of her life Reimann worked at the novel "Franziska Linkerhand". At the time of her death, the last, fifteenth chapter had just been started. [http://www.goethe.de/kue/lit/prj/was/rei/enindex.htm Brigitte Reimann, Franziska Linkerhand at the website of the Goethe Institut] ] In the following year the novel was published nonetheless, although in an heavily censored way. [http://www.buecher-wiki.de/index.php/BuecherWiki/ReimannBrigitte Biography of Brigitte Reimann at Bücher-Wiki] ] Not until 1998 was the uncensored version published. [ [http://www.aufbau-verlag.de/index.php4?page=28&&show=2569 German publisher's website] ]

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 Linkerhand" (incomplete novel, 1974)
*"Das Mädchen auf der Lotosblume" (incomplete novels, 2005)

References