Brigitte Reimann
(born 21 July 1933 in Burg, Germany; died 20 February 1973 in East Berlin); writer
As a young girl, Brigitte Reimann contracted polio and spent several months in hospital. It was during this time that she decided to become a writer and wrote plays for the school theatre. She worked briefly as a teacher until the publication of her first novel, Katja. Eine Liebesgeschichte aus unseren Tagen (Katja. A Love Story of Our Times). For her other novels and radio dramas, Reimann was twice awarded the art prize conferred by the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) as well as the Heinrich Mann Prize. Her most important work, the novel Franziska Linkerhand, remained incomplete and a fragment was first published in 1974. The complete edition based on the original typed copy appeared in 1998.