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Anna Seghers
(1900-1983)

Active: 1924-1980 in Germany, Continental Europe

(Netty Reiling)

By Jean Godsall-Myers (Widener University)
Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University)

Indexing Data:

  • Active In: Germany, Continental Europe
  • Born In: Germany, Continental Europe
  • Activity: Novelist, Storyteller, Essayist

Life, Works and Times

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Anna Seghers was one of the most notable German intellectuals of the twentieth century. With an extensive literary career spanning six decades, Seghers chronicled many of the century’s major historical events in her writing. Her oeuvre encompasses the genres of critical essay, novel, novella, short story, and radio play. Already a leading female author at the end of the 1920s, Seghers rose to preeminence as her works were translated and read around the world.

Anna Seghers, whose given name Netty Reiling, was born on 19th November 1900 into a well-to-do Jewish family that dealt in art and antiques in Mainz. In 1924, she earned a doctorate in art history at the University of Heidelberg with the dissertation

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First published 28 October 2005

Citation: Godsall-Myers, Jean, and Jennifer Marston William. "Anna Seghers". The Literary Encyclopedia. 28 October 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5460, accessed 9 February 2010.]