Anna seghers biography
- Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian Communist, Seghers escaped Nazi-controlled territory through wartime France.
- Anna Seghers, one of the most important German women writers of the twentieth century, was born Netty Reiling on November 19, 1900, in Mainz on the Rhine.
- Anna Seghers, is the pseudonym of German writer Anna Reiling, who was notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian Communist, Seghers escaped Nazi-controlled.
- •
Anna Seghers
When Hitler came to power in January 1933 Seghers did not immediately flee the country. However, after the burning of the Reichstag in February, she was briefly arrested and upon her release left immediately for Switzerland. Like so many other exiles, she then went on to France, where she and her family settled on the outskirts of Paris, in Bellevue. She became very active in building the Volksfront (Popular Front), an anti-fascist coalition that transcended party lines, although Moscow and the Communists played a leading role in it. Seghers was one of the organizers of the International Congress for the Defense of Culture, which was held in Paris in 1935 and brought together writers and intellectuals from thirty-eight countries. For her the years of exile in France were most productive. Besides her anti-fascist speeches, essays, and activities, which insisted on the existence of “the other Germany” and reclaimed its roots in the culture and traditions which the Nazis misappropriated, she wrote many novels and stories and produced some of he
- •
Anna Seghers
The Mythic Dimension
ByHelen Fehervary
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.17315
Request Desk or Examination Copy | Request Media Review Copy
Recommend to Your Library
Look InsidePreview on Google Books
A fascinating study of one of the greatest German woman writers of the twentieth century
Once celebrated as the author of the bestselling antifascist novel The Seventh Cross, Anna Seghers was largely forgotten within Anglo-American letters during the Cold War era. The release of archival materials since 1990 has made possible Helen Fehervary's critical reassessment of Seghers's life and work, one that challenges formerly held assumptions about the Cold War.
Fehervary presents a fascinating portrait of Seghers, a German Jewish writer whose inherently political prose is imbued with traditions of fairy tale, biblical legend, and myth. Seeking to uncover the intellectual and artistic sources of this "mythic world," Fehervary situates Seghers's legacy within the larger context of Central European intellectual history. This is no journey into th
- •
Anna Seghers
German writer (1900–1983)
Anna Seghers (German:[ˈanaˈzeːɡɛʁs]ⓘ; born Anna Reiling, 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of German writer Anna Reiling, who was notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian Communist, Seghers escaped Nazi-controlled territory through wartime France. She was granted a visa and gained ship's passage to Mexico, where she lived in Mexico City (1941–47).
She returned to Europe after the war, living in West Berlin (1947–50), which was occupied by Allied forces. She eventually settled in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where she worked on cultural and peace issues. She received numerous awards and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1972.[2]
She is believed to have based her pseudonym, Anna Seghers, on the surname of the Dutch painter and printmaker Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers (c. 1589 – c. 1638).
Life
Seghers was born Anna Reiling in Mainz i