Editing Anna Seghers

{{Short description|German writer (1900–1983)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Anna Seghers
| birth_name       = Anna (Netty) Reiling
| image            = Anna Seghers (Bundesarchiv-Bild 183-F0114-0204-003) – retouched by Carschten.jpg
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = Anna Seghers (1966)
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1900|11|19|df=yes}}
| birth_place      = [[Mainz]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1983|6|1|1900|11|19|df=yes}}
| death_place      = [[East Berlin]], [[East Germany]]<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/02/obituaries/anna-seghers-novelist-82-1942-work-made-into-movie.html | title=Anna Seghers, Novelist, 82; 1942 Work Made into Movie | newspaper=The New York Times | date=2 June 1983 }}</ref>
| occupation       = Writer
| language         = 
| party            = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[László Radványi]]|1925}}
| alma_mater       = 
| nationality      = German<br />Hungarian (by marriage, 1925)<br />Mexican (by naturalization, 1946)
| notable_works    = ''[[The Seventh Cross]]'', ''[[Transit (Seghers novel)|Transit]]''
}}

'''Anna Seghers''' ({{IPA|de|ˈana ˈzeːɡɛʁs|lang|De-Anna Seghers.ogg}}; 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 [[German Occupation of France|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 Nobel Prize in Literature|1959]], [[1967 Nobel Prize in Literature|1967]], [[1968 Nobel Prize in Literature|1968]], [[1969 Nobel Prize in Literature|1969]] and [[1972 Nobel Prize in Literature|1972]].<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=12468 Nomination archive – Anna (Netty) Seghers (Reiling)] nobelprize.org</ref>

She is believed to have based her pseudonym, Anna Seghers, on the surname of the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] painter and printmaker [[Hercules Seghers|Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers]] (c. 1589 – c. 1638).

== 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>

==Honors and awards==
In 1951, Seghers received the first [[National Prize of the German Democratic Republic|National Prize of the GDR]] and the [[Stalin Peace Prize]]. She received an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Jena]] in 1959. Seghers was nominated for the 1967 [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] by the German Academy of Arts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Forteckning over forslag till 1967 ars Nobelpris i litteratur|url=http://www.svenskaakademien.se/sites/default/files/forslagslista_1967.pdf|website=Swedish Academy (Svenska akademien)|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref> In 1981, she was made an honorary citizen of her native town Mainz.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/seghers.htm |title=Anna Seghers |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070519133420/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/seghers.htm |archive-date=19 May 2007 |url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/germanistik/literatur20/Seiten/biographie.htm |title=German biography |access-date=14 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070623065238/http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/germanistik/literatur20/Seiten/biographie.htm |archive-date=23 June 2007 |url-status = dead}}</ref> She died in Berlin on 1 June 1983 and is buried there.

==Representation in other media==
*''[[The Seventh Cross (film)|The Seventh Cross]]'' (1944) was adapted in English from her 1942 novel of the same name and released by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]], starring [[Spencer Tracy]].
*Anna Seghers is mentioned in the German [[ostalgie]] film, ''[[Good Bye, Lenin!]]'' (2003), directed by [[Wolfgang Becker (director, born 1954)|Wolfgang Becker]].
*Her novel published as ''[[Transit (Seghers novel)|Transit]]'' (1944) in English, set in Marseilles, was adapted for a 2018 film of the same name by German director [[Christian Petzold (director)|Christian Petzold]]. It was set in contemporary Marseilles, again a center of refugees.

== Selected works ==
Anna Seghers's earlier works are typically attributed to the [[New Objectivity]] movement. She also made a number of important contributions to [[Exilliteratur]], including her novels ''[[Transit (Seghers novel)|Transit]]'' and ''[[The Seventh Cross]]''. Her later novels, published in the GDR, are often associated with [[socialist realism]]. A number of her novels have been adapted into films in Germany. In 2021, a collection of her short stories was published in English by [[New York Review Books|NYRB Classics]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= Seghers |first= Anna |year= 2021 |title= The Dead Girls' Class Trip: Selected Stories |translator= [[Margot Bettauer Dembo]] |location= New York, NY |publisher= NYRB Classics |isbn= 978-1-681-37535-9 }}</ref>

* 1928 – Aufstand der Fischer von St. Barbara – ''Revolt of the Fishermen of Santa Barbara'' (novel)
* 1932 - Die Gefährten - ''The Companions'' (novel)
* 1933 – Der Kopflohn – ''A Price on His Head'' (novel)
* 1939 – 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 (Seghers novel)|Transit]]'' (novel)
* 1946 - Die Saboteure – The Saboteurs (1946)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/germanliterature/20th-century/seghers|title=Seghers - German Literature|website=sites.google.com|access-date=2017-05-28}}</ref>
* 1949 - Die Toten bleiben jung – ''[[The Dead Stay Young]]'' (novel)
* 1949 - {{Interlanguage link|Die Hochzeit von Haiti|de}} (short story) "The Wedding from Haiti"
* 1950 - Die Linie.
* 1950 - Der Kesselflicker "The Tinker" (short story)
* 1951 - Crisanta (novella)
* 1951 - Die Kinder.
* 1952 - Der Mann und sein Name (novella)
* 1953 - Der Bienenstock "The Beehive" (short story)
* 1954 - Gedanken zur DDR. In Aufsätze ... 1980, as an excerpt from Andreas Lixl-Purcell (ed.): Erinnerungen deutsch-jüdischer Frauen 1900–1990.
* 1958 - Brot und Salz "Bread and Salt" (short story)
* 1959 - Die Entscheidung "The Decision" (novel)
* 1961 - Das Licht auf dem Galgen "The Light on the Gallows" (short story)
* 1963 - Über Tolstoi. Über Dostojewski.
* 1965 - Die Kraft der Schwachen ''The Power of the Weak'' (novel)
* 1967 - Das wirkliche Blau. Eine Geschichte aus Mexiko. "The Real Blue" (short story)
* 1968 - Das Vertrauen ''Trust'' (novel)
* 1969 - Glauben an Irdisches (essays)
* 1970 - Briefe an Leser.
* 1970 - Über Kunstwerk und Wirklichkeit.
* 1971 - Überfahrt. Eine Liebesgeschichte. "Crossing: A Love Story" (Diálogos Books, 2016)
* 1972 - Sonderbare Begegnungen ''Strange Encounters'' (short stories)
* 1973 - Der Prozeß der Jeanne d'Arc zu Rouen 1431 ''[[The Trial of Joan of Arc in Rouen]]'' (radio play, later adapted by Berthold Brecht)
* 1973 – ''Benito's Blue and Nine Other Stories''
* 1977 - Steinzeit. "Stone Age" Wiederbegegnung "Reencounter" (short stories)
* 1980 - Drei Frauen aus Haiti ''[[Three Women from Haiti]]'' (short stories)
* 1990 - Der gerechte Richter ''The Righteous Judge'' (short stories)

== See also ==
* [[Exilliteratur]]

== Further reading ==
*''Anna Seghers: Eine Biographie in Bildern'', edited by Frank Wagner, Ursula Emmerich, Ruth Radvanyi; with an essay by [[Christa Wolf]], Berlin: Aufbau, 2000
*Helen Fehervary, ''Anna Seghers: The Mythic Dimension''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
*''Anna Seghers: The Challenge of History'', edited by Helen Fehervary, Christiane Zehl Romero, Amy Kepple Strawser. Boston: Brill, 2020.
* ''Writers on the Left in an Age of Extremes: Edgell Rickword, Anna Seghers, Carlo Levi'', by Greta Sykes and David Morgan. London: Socialist History Society, 2021.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons|Anna Seghers|Anna Seghers}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Books and Writers |id=seghers |name=Anna Seghers}}
* [http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/prose/anna_seghers.htm Information on the translated novels] by John Manson
* [http://www.anna-seghers.de/ Die-Anna-Seghers-Home-Page] {{in lang|de}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623065238/http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/germanistik/literatur20/Seiten/biographie.htm German biography] (Potsdam University)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303214812/http://www.new-books-in-german.com/featur16.htm Biography by Prof. Ian Wallace, (in German)]
*[https://www.welt.de/print-welt/article548147/Visionen-Parteitreue-Disziplin.html Interview with Anna Seghers' children] {{in lang|de}}
*[http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472112155-fm.pdf Foreword to a biography on Anna Seghers], University of Michigan Press
*[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/seghers-anna "Anna Seghers"], [[Jewish Women's Archive]]
*[http://www.in-berlin-brandenburg.com/Sehenswuerdigkeiten/Gedenkstaetten/Anna-Seghers.html Anna Seghers' literary memorial in Berlin]
*[https://digipres.cjh.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3311951 "Radfahrer, dein Verhalten"], a digitized [[Tarnschriften]] with excerpts by Anna Seghers at the [[Leo Baeck Institute, New York]] {{in lang|de}}

{{Georg Büchner Prize}}
{{German literature}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seghers, Anna}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century German women writers]]
[[Category:People from Rhenish Hesse]]
[[Category:Writers from Mainz]]
[[Category:Writers from Rhineland-Palatinate]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Germany members]]
[[Category:Cultural Association of the GDR members]]
[[Category:Heidelberg University alumni]]
[[Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany members]]
[[Category:University of Cologne alumni]]
[[Category:Georg Büchner Prize winners]]
[[Category:Kleist Prize winners]]
[[Category:Stalin Peace Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold]]
[[Category:Communist women writers]]
[[Category:Exilliteratur writers]]
[[Category:East German writers]]
[[Category:East German women]]
[[Category:Immigrants to Mexico]]
[[Category:Refugees in Mexico]]
[[Category:German women novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France]]
[[Category:Jewish novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
[[Category:Burials at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery]]