Morgner, Irmtraud

AUTHOR (GERMANY)
BORN 22 Aug 1933, Chemnitz, Sachsen - DIED 6 May 1990, Berlin
CAUSE OF DEATH cancer
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Städtischer Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde, Gudrunstrasse, Lichtenberg (8. Urnenabteilung)

Irmtraud Morgner was the daughter of a railway engineer. She studied German Studies and Literature in Leipzig. From 1956 to 1958 she worked for a literary magazine and afterwards she worked as a freelance author.

In 1966 she published "Rumba auf einen Herbst". This novel led to trouble for her, because it was about the disillusion that young people felt after atomic weapons were stationed on Cuba. She turned to friendlier material and in 1968 her "Hochzeit in Konstantinopel" was a success.

She married Joachim Schreck, a future editor at Aufbau-Verlag, with whom she had a son in 1967. They divorced in 1970. In 1972 Paul Wiens became her second husband. During their marriage he informed the Stasi on her. A divorce followed in 1977.

Also in 1977 year she was elected into the East German Union of Writers. In 1984 she travelled to the USA together with Helga Schütz for publicreadings. As a communist she hoped in 1989 that there would be a new DDR. But she suffered from cancer and died soon afterwards.

Family
• Husband: Wiens, Paul (1972-1977)

Images

The grave of Irmtraud Morgner at the Städtischer Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde, Berlin.
Picture by Androom (14 Nov 2004)

 

Sources
• Hoffmann, Joachim, Berlin Friedrichsfelde, Ein Deutscher Nationalfriedhof, Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, 2001


Mörike, Eduard

Published: 13 Jun 2011
Last update: 03 Jan 2022