Johannes Robert Becher was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writing in an expressionist style.
Agnes Miegel was a German author, journalist and poet. She is best known for her poems and short stories about East Prussia, but also for the support she gave to the Nazi Party.
Otto Julius Bierbaum was a German writer.
Ernst-Jürgen Dreyer was a German writer, translator, playwright and musicologist.
Günter Kunert was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann in 1976, he lost his SED membership, and moved to the West two years later. He is regarded as a versatile German writer who wrote short stories, essays, autobiographical works, film scripts and novels. He received international honorary doctorates and awards.
Felix Braun was an Austrian writer.
Marie Sophie von La Roche was a German novelist. She is considered the first financially independent female professional writer in Germany.
Eva Strittmatter was a German writer of poetry, prose, and children's literature.
Johanna Wolff, née Kielich was a popular German writer.
Elizabeth Shaw was an Irish artist, illustrator and children's book author, active in Germany.
Stephan Koranyi was a German philologist, author, lecturer, and an editor.
Annemarie Bostroem was a German poet, playwright, and lyricist. She lived most recently in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood of Berlin.
Rainer Kirsch was a German writer and poet.
Werner Bernreuther is a German actor, singer-songwriter, writer, poet, translator and painter.
Gisela Kraft was a German author and poet. She also undertook extensive work as a literary translator from Turkish to German.
Gisela Oechelhaeuser is a German cabaret performer and impresario with a doctorate in modern languages. Her career was adversely affected in 1999 when it was disclosed that twenty years earlier, while at university, she actively operated as a paid informer for the Ministry for State Security under the one-party German dictatorship of that time.
Peter Hamm was a German poet, author, journalist, editor, and literary critic. He wrote several documentaries, including ones about Ingeborg Bachmann and Peter Handke. He wrote for the German weekly newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit, among others. From 1964 to 2002, Hamm worked as contributing editor for culture for the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. He was also a jury member of literary prizes, and critic for a regular literary club of the Swiss television company Schweizer Fernsehen.
Justus Hermann Wetzel was a German composer, writer and music educator.
Monika Rinck is a German writer.
Ute Erb is a German writer, poet and translator. She grew up in the German Democratic Republic ; but when she was 16 she escaped illegally to the west, without telling her parents, and ended up living in Cologne "with friends". She was driven to it, as she later explained, "by a homesickness for a Germany that simply did not exist". It would not be the last time she would display a well-honed rebellious streak.
