Ingeborg Drewitz


Ingeborg Drewitz was a German writer and academic.

Life and career

Drewitz was born in Berlin. She graduated in 1941 from the Königin-Luise-Schule in Berlin-Friedenau, and took a degree in German literature, history, and philosophy, followed by a doctorate on 20 April 1945, at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University. Her thesis was on German poet Erwin Guido Kolbenheyer.
From 1973 to 1980 she taught at the Institute of Journalism at the Free University of Berlin. A year before her death she was a juror at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt.
She married her childhood sweetheart, Bernhard Drewitz, by whom she had three daughters. She died in Berlin, aged 63, of complications of cancer.

Writings

As a writer, she was interested in the Enlightenment and addressed Germany's post-war history and the past and present social history of women. According to Knaurs Lexikon der Weltliteratur, third edition of 1995, she "made in her literary work, the abandonment of modern man and his inability to address his neighbour, as well as the problem of the individuality of life. Problems in women and employment are at the heart of her work."
Her drama Alle Tore waren bewacht, which premiered in 1955, was the first German play to address conditions in concentration camps.
Her most successful novel was Gestern war heute: Hundert Jahre Gegenwart , that dealt with three generations of women in the 20th century.

Novels