Editing Anna Seghers (section)

== Life ==
Seghers was born Anna Reiling in [[Mainz]] in 1900 into a Jewish family. She was called "Netty". Her father, Isidor Reiling, was a dealer in antiques and cultural artefacts.<ref name=BiographischeDatenbanken/> In Cologne and Heidelberg she studied history, the history of art, and Chinese.

In 1925 she married [[László Radványi]], also known as Johann Lorenz Schmidt, a Hungarian Communist and academic, thereby acquiring Hungarian citizenship.<ref name=BiographischeDatenbanken>{{cite web|url=http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=3255|title=Seghers, Anna (eigtl.: Netty Radványi): geb. Reiling * 19.11.1900, † 01.06.1983 Shriftstellerin, Präsidentin des Schriftstellerverbands |publisher= Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken|access-date= 21 October 2014}}</ref>

She joined the [[Communist Party of Germany]] in 1928, at a time when the [[Weimar Republic]] was moribund and soon to be replaced. Her 1932 novel, ''Die Gefährten'' was a prophetic warning of the dangers of [[Nazism]], for which she was arrested by the [[Gestapo]]. In 1932, she formally left the Jewish community.<ref>{{cite web|author=Christiane Zehl Romero |url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/seghers-anna |title=Anna Seghers |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive |website=Jwa.org |access-date=2017-07-21}}</ref>
[[File:DorotheenstaedtischerFriedhof AnnaSeghers IMG 1462.jpg|thumb|Grave of Anna Seghers in Berlin]]

By 1934 she had emigrated, via [[Zürich]], to [[Paris]].<ref name=BiographischeDatenbanken/> After German troops invaded the [[French Third Republic]] in 1940, she fled to [[Marseille|Marseilles]], seeking to leave Europe.

One year later, she was granted an entry visa to [[Mexico]] and ship's passage. Settling in Mexico City, she founded the [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] 'Heinrich-Heine-Klub', named after the German Jewish poet [[Heinrich Heine]]. She also founded ''Freies Deutschland'' (''Free Germany''), an academic journal.

While still in Paris, in 1939, she had written ''[[The Seventh Cross]]''. The novel is set in 1936 and describes the escape of seven prisoners from a concentration camp. It was published in English in the United States in 1942 and quickly adapted for an American [[The Seventh Cross (film)|movie of the same name]]. ''The Seventh Cross'' was one of the very few depictions of [[Nazi concentration camps]], in either literature or the cinema, during [[World War II]]. In 1947 Seghers was awarded the [[Georg Büchner Prize|Georg Büchner-Prize]] for this novel.

Seghers's best-known short story, the title of her collection in ''The Outing of the Dead Girls'' (1946), was written in Mexico. It was partially autobiographical, drawn from her reminiscence and reimagining of a pre-World War I class excursion on the [[Rhine]] river. She explores the actions of the protagonist's classmates in light of their decisions and ultimate fates during both world wars. In describing them, the German countryside, and her hometown Mainz, which was soon destroyed in the second war, Seghers expresses lost innocence and ponders the senseless injustices of war. She shows there is no escape from such loss, whether or not one sympathized with the [[Nazi Party]]. Other notable Seghers novels include ''Sagen von [[Artemis]]'' (1938) and ''The Ship of the [[Argonauts]]'' (1953), both based on [[myth]]s.

In 1947, Seghers returned to Germany, settling in [[West Berlin]], an enclave within the Soviet-controlled [[East Germany]]. She joined the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] in the zone occupied by the Soviets. That year she was also awarded the [[Georg Büchner Prize]] for her novel ''[[Transit (Seghers novel)|Transit]]'', written in German, and published in English in 1944.

In 1950, she moved to East Berlin, where she co-founded the Academy of the Arts of the [[East Germany|GDR]], and became a member of the [[World Peace Council]].

Her radio play ''[[The Trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen, 1431]]'' was adapted to the stage by [[Bertolt Brecht]]. It was written in collaboration with [[Benno Besson]] and premiered at the [[Berliner Ensemble]] in November 1952, in a production directed by Besson (his first important production with the Ensemble), with [[Käthe Reichel]] as Joan.<ref>Willett and Manheim (1972, xvii).</ref>