Biografia no.

Born Netty Reiling in Mainz, 1900, she married Laszlo Radvanyi, a Hungarian
Communist in 1925.

She studied in Cologne and Heidelberg history, arts history and Chinese. She joined
the Communist Party of Germany in 1928, at the height of its struggle against the
burgeoning National Socialist German Workers Party. Her 1932 novel, Die Gefährten
was a prophetic warning of the dangers of Fascism, which got her arrested by the
Gestapo. But perhaps she would have suffered at the hands of the Nazis anyway, since
her family background was partly Jewish.

Tombstone of Anna Seghers in Berlin

After German troops invaded the French Third Republic in 1940, she fled to
Marseilles and one year later to Mexico, where she founded the anti-fascist 'Heinrich-
Heine-Klub', named after the German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, and founded
'Freies Deutschland' (Free Germany), an academic journal. During this time, she
wrote The Seventh Cross, for which she received the "Büchner-Prize" in 1947. The
novel was set in 1936 and described the escape of seven prisoners from a
concentration camp. It was published in the United States in 1942 and produced as a
movie (1944) by MGM starring Spencer Tracy. The Seventh Cross was one of the
very few depictions of Nazi concentration camps, in either literature or the cinema,
during World War II.

Seghers best-known story The Excursion of the Dead Girls (1946), written in Mexico,
was an autobiographical reminiscence of a pre-World War I class excursion on the
Rhine river in which the actions of the protagonist's classmates are seen in light of
their decisions and ultimate fates during both world wars. In describing them, the
German countryside, and her soon-to-be destroyed hometown Mainz, Seghers gives
the reader a strong sense of lost innocence and the senseless injustices of war, from
which there proves to be no escape, whether you sympathized with the Nazi party or
not. Other notable Seghers stories include Sagen von Artemis (1938) and The Ship of
the Argonauts (1953), both based on myths.
In 1947, Anna Seghers returned to Germany, moved to West Berlin, and became a
member of the SED in the zone occupied by the Soviets. In 1950, she moved to East
Berlin and became a co-founder of the freedom movement of the GDR. In 1951, she
received the first "Nationalpreis der DDR" and the "Ehrendoktorwürde der
Universität Jena" in 1959. In 1981, she became "Ehrenbürgerin" of her native town
Mainz.[1][2]

Anna Seghers gets a "cameo" mention in the ostalgie film, Good Bye Lenin!.

[edit] Selected works

• 1928 - Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara - Revolt of the Fishermen of
Santa Barbara (novel)
• 1933 - Der Kopflohn - A Price on His Head (novel)
• 1942 - Das siebte Kreuz - The Seventh Cross (novel)
• 1943 - Der Ausflug der toten Mädchen - The Excursion of the Dead Girls
(story) (in: German Women Writers of the Twentieth Century, Pergamon
Press, 1978)
• 1944 - Transit - Transit Visa (novel)
• 1949 - Die Toten bleiben jung - The Dead Stay Young (novel)
• 1973 - Benito's Blue and Nine Other Stories

Biografia nr.2

Anna Seghers Biography and List of Works

Books by Anna Seghers | Shop used books at Biblio.com

German novelist, essayist, short story writer who is best remembered for her novels about the persecution of Jews
and other groups in Nazi Germany. She gained international fame with her novels The Seventh Cross (1942) and
Transit (1944), the story of a group of German refugees in southern France. Seghers's major themes are social
injustice and the political upheavals of the modern age. Her pseudonym was taken from the Dutch painter and
etcher Hercules Seghers (1589/90-1638), whose fantastic landscapes she admired while studying in Heidelberg.
Seghers wrote her most significant books while in exile.

"Im Gefangenenlager, in der Schule hatte Lohmer gelernt, wir die Geschichte der Menschen geworden ist
und die neue Gesellschaft, in der er jetzt lebt. Er hatte gelernt, warum die Sowjetunion die ist, die sie ist. All
die Lügen, die Hitler ihnen eingebleubt hatte, waren dort von ihm abgefallen. Er war gesund und frei
geworden, stark und klar."
(from Der Mann und sein Name, 1952)

Anna Seghers (pseudonym of Netty Radványi) was born in Mainz into a cultured Jewish family. Influenced by her
father, an antique dealer and art expert, she exhibited an early interest in art. Seghers studied at the University of
Heidelberg, and wrote her doctoral thesis on ASPECTS OF JEWS AND JEWISHNESS IN THE WORK OF
REMBRANDT. While still a student, Seghers joined a group of left-wing intellectuals. In 1925 she married the
Hungarian writer and sociologist Lászlo Radványi. In 1928 Seghers joined the Communist Party and the Union of
Proletarian and Revolutionary Writers. In the same year she made her literary debut with the novella DER
AUFSTAND DER FISCHER VON ST. BARBARA (The Revolt of the Fishermen), which tells of the spontaneous
insurrection of Breton fishermen against a monopoly. Seghers's view is realistic without making the subject
polemic. She paid close attention to details, reflecting the ideas of Neue Sachlichkeit (new factualism). In this
story Seghers forms her key themes - people must work together to fight oppression and rebellion gives meaning
to one's life, even in death. The book gained public acclaim and was awarded the Kleist Prize. In 1934 the work
was filmed in Russia by the radical German theatre director Erwin Piscator (1893-1966).

In 1930 Seghers published a collection of short stories about poverty-stricken workers, AUF DEM WEGE ZUR
AMERIKANIOSCHEN BOTSCHAFT, UND ANDERE ERZÄHLUNGEN, which illustrates her interest from
Dostoevsky, to Georg Bücher. Releasing the revolutionary energy is a central theme in DIE GEFÄHRTEN (932)
and DER WEG DURCH DEN FEBRUARY (1934) - the latter deals with the Engelbert Dollfuss uprising in
Austria in 1934. Austrian Nazis assassinated Dollfuss, a World War I hero and politician, during their attempt at a
coup d'etat. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Seghers's writings were prohibited and she was briefly arrested.
She fled to France in 1933 with her family, joining the other German exiles. In 1934 she went to Vienna and
during the civil war she was in Spain. She lived in Paris until the invasion of Northern France in 1940, whereupon
she made her way to Marseilles, and eventually settled in Mexico in 19410. There she wrote her most famous
work, DAS SIEBTE KREUZ (1942, The Seventh Cross).

The Seventh Cross was made into a successful Hollywood film, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring
Spencer Tracy. The story depicts seven Germans, who escape from a concentration camp, and are pursued
by the Gestapo. In the camp the Nazis set up seven crosses to wait for the refugees. Four of them are
captured, the fifth dies naturally, the sixth loses his hope and returns to the camp, but the seventh cross
remains empty. In the film Fred Zinnemann makes a strong statement about a cynic who regains hope when
others risk their lives to save him. In the book Seghers employs firsthand knowledge and eyewitness reports
of Nazi terror, and bundled together the parallel threads of plot to create a novel of many facets.

Seghers firmly believed that as a writer she could advocate the cause of the proletariat, but she became
disillusioned when the German workers did not stop the Nazi takeover. After World War II Seghers returned to
East Berlin. In 1946 DER AUSFLUG DER TOTEN MÄDCHEN was published, which draws upon material from
her youth in a similar fashion as her later work DIE ÜBERFAHRTS (1971). DIE TOTEN BLEIBEN JUNG (1949,
The Dead Stay Young) portrays martyred communists in a world of reactionaries and good revolutionaries. 'Sagen
von Unirdischen', from the volume SONDERBARE BEGEGNIÚNGEN (1972) is a science fiction story, and the
novella STEINZEIT (1975) concerns the psychological and physical self-destruction of an American Vietnam
veteran.

Seghers participated actively in the cultural and political development of the new socialist state and was appointed
vice-president of Kulturbundes zur demokratische Erneuerung Deutschland. From 1952 to 1978 she was the
president of the writers' union. Seghers died in East Berlin on June 1, 1983.

Seghers believed that justice and humanistic culture could be built only on the grounds of socialism and
communism. In the DDR Seghers devoted herself to developing a simpler, terser literary style in accordance with
the canon of socialist realism. Later feminist critic has accused her of describing women in an essentially
subordinate position to male heroes, who are seen as the primary agent for building a new socialist order.
However, her stature has not been adequately recognized in the West after the fall of DDR. From the younger
generation of writers, her work inspired among others Christa Wolf.

For further reading: Anna Seghers, ed. by F. Wagner et al (1994); Anna Seghers by C. Zehl Romero (1993);
Anna Seghers im Exil by A. Stephan (1993); Anna Seghers by A. Schrade (1993); Anna Seghers by Kurt Batt
(1980); The bourgeois proletarian by L.A. Bangerter (1980); Zu Anna Seghers by Christa Wolf (Sinn und Form,
Oktober 1980); Der Kurs auf die Realität by F. Wagner (1978); Anna Seghers by K. Sauer (1978); Ideologie und
Mythos by E. Haas (1975); Anna Seghers, Ihr Leben und Werk by H. Neugebauer (1970); - other studies by W.
Buthge (1982); C. Degemann (1985); K.J. LaBahn (1985) - See also: Anne Fried

Selected works:

German writers on exile1

Exiled German-Speaking Intellectuals in Los Angeles

During the 1930s and 1940s, many German Jews and intellectuals fled Nazi Germany. At first
many of them moved to neighboring European countries seeking a haven for their religious
and political views. As the National Socialists expanded their control throughout Europe, the
German exiles were again in grave danger. Those who were able to escape across the
Atlantic finally found safety in the United States. Some of these writers, artists, and
intellectuals gathered in New York; however, Southern California's warm, Mediterranean-like
climate attracted many to live on the West Coast.

This web site provides information about some members of the German émigré community
who lived in Southern California during the bitter war years. Biographical information and
current photographs of their homes is provided. The photographs in these pages are located
in the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.

BERTOLT BRECHT

Bertolt Brecht was one of the most important German writers and playwrights of the 20th
century. He is perhaps best known for his collaborative work Die Dreigroschenoper (The
Three Penny Opera) with composer Kurt Weill. In Berlin during the 1920s Brecht worked with
theater directors Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator; he also collaborated with composers
Weill, Hindemith and Eisler to create a form he called "Lehrstücke" ("exemplary plays"). All of
these artists would later flee from Europe and live for a time in the United States.

Brecht's political and satrical writing made him an early enemy of the National Socialists.
Brecht escaped first to Switzerland, then to Scandinavia. With financial help from his friend
and fellow exile, Lion Feuchtwanger, Brecht was able to come to the United States.

Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel first lived briefly in Hollywood on 1954 Argyle Avenue, then
moved to this house on 817 25th Street in Santa Monica between 1941 and 1942.

For the rest of his stay until 1947, Brecht lived at 1063 26th Street. In his August 12th (1942)
diary entry Brecht described this house in this way:

"one of the oldest, is about 30 years old, california clapboard, whitewashed, with an
upper floor with 4 bedrooms. i have a long workroom (almost 7 meters), which we
immediately whitewashed and equipped with 4 tables. there are old trees in the
garden (a pepper-tree and a fig-tree). rent is $60 per month, $12.50 more than in 25th
street."
Brecht had great difficulties in this country owing to his
theatrical philosophy and political views. One success,
however, was his production of "The Life of Galileo" ("Leben
des Galilei") on which he was assisted by the well-known
British actor Charles Laughton. During these years Brecht and
Feuchtwanger collaborated on a play called the "Die Gesichte
der Simone Marchard" ("The Visions of Simone Machard")
which was not produced until after Brecht's death.

Bertolt Brecht's years in Southern California: 1941-1947.

ALFRED DOBLIN

German Exiles in Southern California

Alfred Döblin (1878-1957)

Born in Berlin, Döblin studied psychiatry and medicine and practiced in Berlin while writing
stories and essays. As a Jew and a former Social Democrat in 1933 Germany, Döblin's life
was in danger so he fled first to Switzerland, then to France. Döblin crossed the Pyrenees in
1940 and escaped to the United States. By October he was living in Southern California.

He converted to Catholicism in 1941 along with his wife and son, perhaps due in part to the
isolation they experienced in Southern California. He returned to Germany in 1945 as an
American education officer. In 1949 after co-founding the Akademie für Wissenschaft und
Literatur, he returned to France in 1951.
Döblin is best-known for Berlin Alexanderplatz, his most Expressionistic novel which was
published in 1929. While living in Southern California, Döblin started the novel Hamlet oder
Die lange Nacht nimmt ein Ende which he finished in 1946 in Germany. Like Heinrich Mann
and other exiles, Döblin was permitted to enter the U.S. because he had had a year contract
with MGM as a scriptwriter. Thanks to this good position, he earned $100 per week during his
first year in Los Angeles. After the contract was up, he was left to live from unemployment
benefits and gifts provided by friends through the European Film Fund.

Alfred Döblin lived at several addresses in Hollywood during his five years in Los Angeles.
For the first few months, he lived at 1842 N. Cherokee Avenue; in February 1942 he moved
to 901 N. Genesee Street; and between November 1942 and 1945, he lived at 1347 N.
Citrus Avenue.

German Exiles in Southern California

Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

Thomas Mann is considered the greatest German writer of the 20th century. He was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. Opposed to the politics of the National Socialists, Mann
emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and lived there until 1938. He then came to the United
States as a visiting professor to Princeton. In July 1940, the Manns took the train to Southern
California, living at 441 North Rockingham in Brentwood until October. Thomas and Katia
Mann returned to Princeton for the fall of 1940 before finally returning to California in April
1941. They lived next at 740 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades until they built their own home
in Pacific Palisades at 1550 San Remo Drive.

In 1944 Thomas Mann became a U.S. citizen. Although Mann visited both East and West
Germany several times after the end of the war, he refused to live there and completed his
years living in Switzerland near Zürich. While in Los Angeles, Mann wrote Joseph der
Ernährer (1942), Doktor Faustus (1947), its appendix Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus
(1949), Der Erwählte(1951).

Biografia po niemiecku
Eine der bedeutendsten deutschen Erzählerinnen
des 20. Jahrhunderts. 1900 in Mainz geboren. Erste
Erfolge in der Weimarer Republik, Exil in Frankreich
1933 - 40, Exil in Mexiko 1940 - 47. In der Emigration
weltberühmt durch den Roman "Das siebente
Kreuz". Rückkehr nach Deutschland 1947. 26 Jahre
Präsidentin des Schriftstellerverbandes der DDR.
Gestorben 1983. In Spanien und Lateinamerika nur
wenig bekannt.

"Anna Seghers: Deutsche, Jüdin, Kommunistin,

Schriftstellerin, Frau, Mutter. Jedem dieser Worte denke
man nach. So viele einander widersprechende,
scheinbar einander ausschließende Identitäten, so viele
tiefe, schmerzliche Bindungen," schreibt über sie eine
andere große Autorin, Christa Wolf.

Anna Seghers hatte bereits mit ihren ersten Erzählungen

in der Weimarer Republik großes Aufsehen erregt und
schon als sehr junge Autorin - mit 28 Jahren -den
renommierten Kleist-Preis erhalten. Wie viele Künstler
dieser Zeit sympathisierte sie mit sozialistischen Ideen
und trat Ende der zwanziger Jahre in die kommunistische
Partei ein. Seghers ist übrigens nicht ihr richtiger Name,
sondern das Pseudonym, unter dem sie ihre ersten
Arbeiten veröffentlichte. In ihrer literarischen Existenz
bezeichnete sie sich als "Enkelin" von Jan Seghers,
einem protestantischen Pfarrer aus Holland, auf dessen
Grabstein von 1625 nach einer lokalen Fabel stand, dass
er als Toter mit seinen wilden und zornigen Gebeten Gott
so lange zusetzte, bis dieser ihn in seiner alten Gestalt
noch einmal leben lassen musste, um für die
Gerechtigkeit auf der Erde weiter kämpfen zu können.
Diese literarische Selbsterfindung ist wohl auch als
Abgrenzung gegenüber ihrem jüdischen, wohlhabenden
Mainzer Elternhaus zu verstehen, in dem sie 1900 als
Netty Reiling geboren wurde.
Sie hatte zwei Kinder ,
die 1926 und 1928
geboren wurden.
Allerdings war Familie
nie Hauptgegenstand
ihrer Arbeiten. Ihr
Interesse galt der
Entwicklung von
Personen, die in die
gesellschaftlichen und
politischen
Widersprüche ihrer
Zeit verwickelt
wurden; die
realistischen
Thematiken ihrer
Werke waren häufig
durch Elemente von
Märchen, Sagen oder
Fabeln verfremdet.

Da Anna Seghers als

prominente
kommunistische
Autorin und ihr Mann,
der ungarische
Soziologe Laszlo
Radvanyi, als Direktor
der Marxistischen
Arbeiterschule Berlin
(MASCH), bereits
Anfang der 30er Jahre
von den Nazis massiv
bedroht wurden,
mussten sie schon
Anfang 1933
Deutschland
verlassen. Ihre
Fluchtstationen waren
die Schweiz,
Frankreich und
Mexiko.
Im Gegensatz zu
vielen ihrer
Schriftstellerkollegen
litt ihre literarische
Produktivität nicht
unter der Exilsituation.
Im Gegenteil hatte sie
nach Meinung vieler
Experten gerade in
dieser Zeit ihre sowohl
quantitativ wie
qualitativ beste und
intensivste
Schaffensperiode.
Hilfreich mag für sie
gewesen sein, dass
sie die erste Station
ihres Exils, Frankreich,
liebte und die
französische Sprache
perfekt beherrschte.
Sie konnte sich auch
in Mexiko, das sie erst
nach einer
abenteuerlichen Flucht
mit vielen Stationen
erreichte (die USA
weigerten sich, sie
aufzunehmen), gut
sprachlich integrieren.
Der "Fluchtort Mexiko"
bot nicht nur vielen
fortschrittlichen
Deutschen Asyl,
sondern öffnete seine
Grenzen auch für
zahlreiche spanische
und
lateinamerikanische
Künstler und
Intellektuelle. Mexiko
gab den Exilierten
gezielt die Möglichkeit,
weiter gegen den
Faschismus zu
kämpfen. Dass es
zwischen diesen von
ihrer Herkunft sehr
unterschiedlichen
Gruppen teilweise
sehr enge Kontakte
gab, zeigt sich
beispielsweise darin,
dass Anna Seghers
unmittelbar nach ihrer
Ankunft von Pablo
Neruda, damals
chilenischer
Generalkonsul in
Mexiko, zu einem
Willkommensessen
eingeladen wurde.
Daraus entstand eine
enge Freundschaft.
Jorge Amado, der
bekannteste
brasilianische Autor
der Gegenwart,
schrieb, dass er und
Pablo Neruda sie als
ihre "Schwester"
gesehen hätten:
"Niemals besaß
jemand auf der Welt
so viel Charme und
Phantasie wie Anna -
so viel, so viel".

Zu Weltruhm gelangte
Anna Seghers durch
ihren Roman "Das
siebte Kreuz", der
1942 eines der
erfolgreichsten Bücher
in den Vereinigten
Staaten war und in der
Verfilmung durch Fred
Zinnemann von 1944
gleichfalls große
Resonanz fand.

Anna Seghers
zahlreiche Romane
und Erzählungen sind
nach dem zweiten
Weltkrieg in den
beiden deutschen
Staaten extrem
unterschiedlich
bewertet worden.
Während sie in der
Deutschen
Demokratischen
Republik mit Preisen
überhäuft wurde und
dort von 1952 - 1978
Präsidentin des
Schriftstellerverbande
s war, wurde sie in der
Bundesrepublik
Deutschland nach den
Kriterien des kalten
Krieges lange Zeit
durch Ignoranz und
Feindseligkeit dafür
gestraft, dass sie
Kommunistin war und
sich nie in der
westlichen
Öffentlichkeit kritisch
gegenüber dem
Stalinismus oder der
Politik sozialistischen
Staaten äußerte. Noch
1987, vier Jahre nach
ihrem Tod, schrieb der
renommierte
westdeutsche "Meyers
Lexikonverlag" in
seiner "Großen
Taschenedition" (Band
20) über Anna
Seghers, dass ihr
Werk gekennzeichnet
sei "durch die knappe
konzentrierte
Darstellung aktueller
sozialrevolutionärer
Kämpfe ... aus der
Perspektive psychisch
unkomplizierter
Menschen...", und
verfasste damit eine
politische Bewertung,
die nicht durch die
Lektüre ihrer Bücher
entstanden sein kann.

Seit den neunziger

Jahren hat eine Phase
der weniger
ablehnenden
Betrachtung des
Werks von Anna
Seghers in den
Nachschlagewerken
begonnen. Es scheint
aber immer noch ein
Tabu zu sein, den
literarischen
Stellenwert ihrer
Arbeiten zu benennen,
wie sonst bei
bedeutenden Autoren
in Lexika üblich.

Wir wollen mit den

ausgewählten Texten
eine Einladung
verfassen, sich selbst
ein Bild zu machen,
nicht nur wegen der
Aktualität vieler ihrer
Werke, sondern
wegen mancher
Schätze, die es zu
entdecken gibt.