Gustav Just


Gustav Just was First Secretary of the German Writers' Association and editor-in-chief of the East German weekly Sonntag until 1957, when he was sentenced to four years imprisonment after a show trial in which he was accused of having engaged in anti-constitutional activities along with Walter Janka, Heinz Zöger, and Richard Wolf. He was born in Reinowitz, Bohemia.
After his release he became a prolific translator of primarily Czech but also Slovak works into German and was "rehabilitated" in 1990.
He served in the Brandenburg State Parliament in the newly unified Germany until he was forced to resign in 1992 following allegations of having participated in wartime atrocities on the Eastern Front during World War II.
In 1998 he received the Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung.

Publications