Anna Seghers

was born in Mainz on 19/11/1900. During her studies she became acquainted with the Hungarian sociologist and economist László Radványi whom she married in 1925. Their two children were born in 1926 and 1928. In 1928 Anna Seghers was awarded the Kleist Prize for her literary works. She became a member of the Kommunis­ tische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany) and of the Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller (Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors).

lmmediately after the Reichstag fire she had to flee to France via Switzerland. Untill 1940 she and her family lived in Paris. After the military occupation of Northern France by the Germans, she fled with her children into the unoccupied South of France; her husband was already interned there in the spring of 1940. In 1941 she received the visas for her flight to Mexico.

Anna Seghers lifeblood was the literary work and commitment among the exiled persons. In 1942 "Das siebte Kreuz" (The Seventh Cross) was published, one of the most important novels about Germany during the period of National Socialism. In 1947 she returned to Berlin and lived in the eastern part of the city. From 1952 to 1978 she was President of the Schriftstellerverband der DDR (Association of Writers in East Germany). She died in 1983.