The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was followed by German reunification in 1990. In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolution that brought down the Wall, we will profile over the course of 2009 important East Germans who have shaped beyond all physical borders the cultural, intellectual and political life of postwar Germany and Europe.

Christa Wolf, one of Germany’s most important contemporary writers, celebrates her 80th birthday on March 18, 2009. In her best-known works, Wolf, whose books are also widely read in the West, deals with her experience of life in a divided Germany and under the political conditions of the GDR. In particular, she portrays the individual human being and different personalities in this political system. Her extensive narrative and essayistic oeuvre have been translated in many languages and have won national and international awards.

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Surrounded by books: Christa Wolf in a photo from 1973.

(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

Born in Landsberg an der Warthe in 1929, Christa Wolf (née Ihlenfeld) completed her Abitur – the German university-entrance examination – in 1949 and went on to do German studies in Jena and Leipzig. It was around this time that she joined the Socialist Unity Party (SED), of which she remained a member until 1989. After completing her studies, she worked as an academic collaborator for the German Writers’ Association and, from 1956 onwards, was employed by the publishing houses Neues Leben (New Life) in Berlin and Mitteldeutscher Verlag (Central German Publishers) in Halle as well as by the journal Neue Deutsche Literatur (New German Literature).

It was during this period that she published her first prose works. Moskauer Novelle (Moscow Novella) appeared to great acclaim in the GDR in 1961 but was not published in the Federal Republic of Germany. The book, a critical examination of fascism, is today considered one of the most important works in the history of East German literature. From 1962 onwards, Christa Wolf worked as a freelance writer and published further books. The work that established Wolf’s literary reputation was her highly successful novel Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven), published in 1963. It deals with the relationship between a female student and a chemist – a relationship that fails as a result of Germany’s partition. The book gained wider popularity through a film adaptation and garnered her the Heinrich Mann Prize.

Wolf’s attitude towards the GDR remained ambivalent up until the fall of the East German regime. She defended the country and system in which she lived; however, she also publicly criticized it. For example, her 1968 novel Nachdenken über Christa T. (The Quest for Christa T.), which was hotly debated in the GDR and even banned at first, deals with the conflict between the individual’s personal development and socialist society. From 1968 until 1989, the writer was under surveillance by the Stasi (State Security Service) for expressing opinions at variance with official doctrine. She later sought to come to terms with this experience in the semi-autobiographical story Was bleibt (What Remains), published in 1990.

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Christa Wolf pictured in a photo from 2008 at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, where the archive of her works is held.

(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

From 1976 up to the present, Christa Wolf has lived in Berlin, where she has continued to work as a writer. In 2005, she published her most recent book Mit anderem Blick. Erzählungen (From Another Point of View: Stories). In 2002, she was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair’s German Book Prize for her life’s work.

To mark her 80th birthday, she will be receiving a special gift: Sich aussetzen. Das Wort ergreifen – Texte und Bilder zum 80. Geburtstag von Christa Wolf (Exposing Oneself. Having One’s Say – Texts and Pictures on Christa Wolf’s 80th Birthday) is the title of the book due to be published in March 2009 with over 70 contributions by German-speaking and international writers, artists and public figures. The book is edited by Therese Hörnigk, who has collected original texts and artwork in celebration of the occasion. The contributors include Volker Braun, Günter Grass, Durs Grünbein and Klaus Wowereit, all of whom will be offering Christa Wolf their congratulations.