Seghers, Anna

AUTHOR (GERMANY)
BORN 19 Nov 1900, Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz - DIED 1 Jun 1983, Berlin
BIRTH NAME Radvanyi-Reiling, Netty
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Chausseestrasse (CAK-1-8/9 (Ehrengrab, 1. Weg li., li. S.))

Anna Seghers was born at Netty Reiling, daughter of the art dealer Isidor Reiling. She studied art, history ad philology in Heidelberg and promoted on Rembrandt. In 1925 she married the Hungarian communist László Radványi (later known as Johann-Lorenz Schmidt). They had two children.

In 1927 she published "Grubetsch" under the name of Seghers. The author was believed to be a man. For "Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara" (1928) she received the Kleist-Prize. In 1934 Erwin Piscator turned this book in a movie in the USSR.

In 1928 she became a member of the Communist Party and after the nazis came to power in 1933 she was arrested before was able to flee to France. After the invasion of France she fled from Paris to Marseille in 1940 and in 1941 she left for Mexico, where she founded the anti-fascist Heinrich-Heine-Klub. In 1944 her novel "Transit" was published in spanish and English.

In 1947 she returned to Germany and settled in West Berlin. She became vice president of the East German "Kulturbundes zur demokratischen Erneuerung Deutschlands" and moved to East Berlin in 1950, where she was a founding member of the Deutschen Akademie der Künste. Her novel "Die Überfahrt" (1971) was regarded as the best of her later work. In 1983 she died in East Berlin.

Related persons
• was published by Kiepenheuer, Gustav
• knew Lask, Berta
• was a friend of Weiskopf, Franz Carl

Images

The grave of Anna Seghers at the Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Berlin.
Picture by Androom (26 Mar 2007)

 

Sources
Berlin Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Berlin
• Hammer, Klaus, Historische Friedhöfe & Grabmäler in Berlin, Stattbuch Verlag, Berlin, 1994
Anna Seghers Gesellschaft – Anna Seghers Gesellschaft


Segond-Weber, Eugénie

Published: 27 May 2007
Last update: 11 Feb 2023