Wolf, Christa (1929–)

German writer. Pronunciation: VOllff (O as in old). Born Christa Margarete Ihlenfeld, Mar 18, 1929, in Landsberg-Wartha (today Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland); dau. of Otto Ihlenfeld (merchant); Abitur in Bad Frankenhausen, 1949; studied Germanic languages and literature in Jena and Leibzig, 1949–53; m. Gerhard Wolf (Germanist and essayist), 1951; children: Annette (b. 1952); Katrin (b. 1956).

Writer from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) whose internationally acclaimed novels and essays advocate the humanistic goals of Marxism while promoting a confrontation with Germany's past and present; was a member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED, 1949–89); moved to Berlin (1953); was on staff of Neue deutsche Literatur (1954–59); served as chief editor for publishing company Neues Leben (1956–59); was a member and executive committee member of Writers' Union, GDR (1955–77); published 1st novel, Moskauer Novelle (1962); had 1st success with Divided Heaven (1963); was a candidate of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party(1963–67); published The Quest of Christa T. (1968), which was popular in the West; wrote A Model Childhood, a partly autobiographical account of life under fascism and the difficulty of dealing with the fascist past in the present (1976); for signing an open letter protesting the expulsion of the writer Wolf Biermann, was dismissed from the executive committee of Berlin Section of Writers' Union of GDR (1976); published the story of a fictional encounter between writer Heinrich von Kleist and poet Karoline von Günderrode in No Place on Earth (1979); was a guest professor in Poetics at the University of Frankfurt am Main (1982) and a guest professor at Ohio State University (1983); wrote Cassandra (1983); after Chernobyl, published Accident/A Day's News (1987); with the fall of the Berlin Wall, withdrew from Socialist Union Party (1989); received intense attention from the media and faced charges of cowardice after the publication of "What Remains?" (1990), which chronicled her experience of being spied upon by the Stasi, the secret security service of the GDR; was found to be listed as an informer and informal collaborator of the Stasi (1959–62), in a Stasi file that was discovered (1993); her Auf dem Weg nach Tabou (1994, trans. and released in US as Parting from Phantoms: Selected Writings, 1990–1994, 1997) documents the doubts and uncertainty following the collapse of the GDR and the unification of Germany.

See also Marilyn Sibley Fries, ed. Responses to Christa Wolf (Wayne State U. Press, 1989); Anna K. Kuhn, Christa Wolf's Utopian Vision: From Marxism to Feminism (Cambridge U. Press, 1988); and Women in World History.