Brigitte Reimann (1933 - 1973) was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel, Franziska Linkerhand.
Brigitte Reimann wrote her first amateur play at the age of fifteen. In 1950 she was awarded the first prize in an amateur drama comeptition by the Berlin theater Volksbühne. After graduating, Reimann worked as teacher, bookseller and reporter. After a miscarriage in 1954, she attempted suicide. In 1960, she started to work at the brown coal mine Schwarze Pumpe, where she and her second husband Siegfried Pitschmann headed a circle of writing workers. There, she writes the narrative Ankunft im Alltag, which is regarded as a masterpiece of socialist realism.
When troops of the Warsaw Pact states invaded the ČSSR on August 20, 1968 as a reaction to liberalisations during the Prague Spring, Reimann refused to sign the declaration by the East German Writers' Association approving of the measure.
On February 22, 1973, Reimann died of cancer at the age of 39.
During the last ten years of her life Reimann worked at the novel Franziska Linkerhand. At the time of her death, the last chapter had just been started. In the following year the novel was published in an heavily censored edition. Not until 1998 was the uncensored version published.
Brieven en dagboeken van mijn favoriete DDR-schrijfster, gepubliceerd elf jaar na haar overlijden op 20 februari 1972, en samengesteld door haar redacteur bij uitgeverij Neues Leben. In 1983 was het nog volop DDR en alle de partij onwelgevallige passages hebben deze druk niet gehaald. Dat is jammer. Gelukkig is dat later goedgemaakt met de twee delen originele dagboeken. Desalniettemin blijft er genoeg te genieten over bij het lezen van van deze hartstochtelijke, ambitieuze, wilskrachtige, openhartige, onzekere, bevlogen en sensuele vrouw, die maar 39 is geworden.