Christa Reinig (6 August 1926, in Berlin – 30 September 2008, in Munich) was a German poet, fiction and non-fiction writer, and dramatist. She began her career in the Soviet occupation zone which became East Berlin, was banned there, after publishing in West Germany, and moved to the West in 1964, settling in Munich. She was openly lesbian. Her works are marked by black humor, and irony.
Life and career Reinig was raised in eastern Berlin by her mother, Wilhelmine Reinig, who was a cleaning woman.Madeleine Marti, tr. Joey Horsley, Christa Reinig, Biographies, FemBio After the end of the Second World War, Reinig was a Trümmerfrau, and worked in a factory. She also sold flowers on the Alexanderplatz in the 1940s."Vergessene Ikone der feministischen Literatur: Zum Tod der Schriftstellerin Christa Reinig", Deutschlandradio, 6 October 2008, revised 15 April 2009 In the 1950s, she obtained her Abitur at night school, and went on to study art history at Humboldt University, after which she took a job at the Märkisches Museum, the museum of the history of Berlin, and the Mark Brandenburg, where she worked, until she left Berlin for the West.
She made her literary début in the late 1940s in the satirical magazine Ulenspiegel,Katrin Hillgruber, "Nachruf: Christa Reinig—Ich träume von meiner Verkommenheit", Der Tagesspiegel, 7 October 2008 at the urging of Bertolt Brecht; she had been working there as an editor."Lakonische Lyrikerin: Christa Reinig ist tot", Der Spiegel 6 October 2008 In 1956, her "Ballade vom blutigen Bomme" ("Ballad of Bloody Bomme", first published in 1952)Martin Lüdke, "Von schnodderigem Charme: Die vergessene, große Dichterin Christa Reinig ist tot. Sie starb im Alter von 82 Jahren", Frankfurter Rundschau, 7 October 2008 was included in Walter Höllerer's poetic anthology Transit, which brought her to the attention of readers in the West; one writer in 1963 referred to its "strange mix of benevolent cynicism and bottomless sadness"."Mein tiefstes Herz heißt Tod", Die Zeit, 7 June 1963 : "[D]ieses eine Gedicht in seiner unheimlichen Mischung aus freundlichem Zynismus und bodenloser Traurigkeit ließ einen großen Teil der über dreihundert von Höllerer zusammengetragenen Gedichte junger deutscher Autoren als gegenstandsloses Kunstgewerbe hinter sich." - "[T]his single poem, in its strange mix of benevolent cynicism and bottomless sadness, outclassed a large part of the more than three hundred poems by young German writers assembled by Höllerer, [revealing them] as artifice lacking all substance." However, she was largely forbidden to publish in the East, beginning in 1951, while she was still a student.Neuer Vorlass in Marbach: Die Schriftstellerin Christa Reinig hat ihre Papiere dem Deutschen Literaturarchiv Marbach übergeben , Press Release, German Literature Archive, 8 August 2008 She was already involved in the West Berlin Gruppe Zukunftsachlicher Dichter (group of future-reasoning writers),Madeleine Marti, Christa Reinig, Biographien, FemBio and continued to publish both poetry and stories with West German publishers.
In 1964, after her mother's death, Reinig travelled to West Germany to receive the Bremen Literature Prize and stayed there, settling in Munich. She had ankylosing spondylitis; she left her desk at the museum empty, except for an X-ray of her crooked spine.
In 1971, she broke her neck in a fall on a spiral staircase; inadequate medical care left her severely disabled,Ricarda Schmidt, "Sockelfigur am 'gußeisernen Paradepferd der Weltgeschichte': Christa Reinigs autobiographischer Roman Die himmlische und die irdische Geometrie als 'Weibsgeschichte' aus der Zeit des kalten Krieges", The German Quarterly 72.4 (Fall 1999) 362–76, p. 362 and having to survive on a government pension. She could not use a typewriter again, until being fitted with specially made prismatic spectacles in 1973, after which she wrote her first novel, the autobiographical Die himmlische und die irdische Geometrie (The Heavenly and the Earthly Geometry), which she completed in 1974.
Reinig died on 30 September 2008 in the Catholic care home, where she had moved at the start of that year. She left her papers to the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar.
Themes and types of writing Reinig began as a lyric poet, and her voice is frequently allegorical and metaphysical, as well as characterised by black humor, irony, brash, life-affirming sarcasm, and an "extremely refined simplicity". She was known as a rebel, who went her own way.[eine] rebellische Selbstdenkerin; Hillgruber."Die Freischwimmerin", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 5 August 2006 She felt like an outsider both in East Germany, despite her proletarian background, and in the feminist movement.
Her first published short story came in 1946, "Ein Fischerdorf"; and between 1949 and 1951, she wrote stories about women living without men; however, for 25 years after that, until the autobiographical Die himmlische und die irdische Geometrie, a "pre-feminist" work in female voice, men were at the centre of her work. For a decade beginning in the mid-1970s, she was an avowedly feminist writer. Her 1976 satirical novel, Entmannung, reveals the patriarchalism in both men's and women's thinking processes, and led to her coming out;Kathleen L. Komar, "The Late-1970s Klytemnestra—Brutality on All Fronts: Christa Reinig's Entmannung", in Reclaiming Klytemnestra: Revenge or Reconciliation, Urbana: University of Illinois, 2003, , pp. 67–74, p. 68. in the 1979 cycle of poems, Müßiggang ist aller Liebe Anfang (later published in English translation as Idleness is the Root of All Love), she expressed her lesbianism in her work for the first time. Reinig said of herself in an interview at sixty, "I am a lesbian writer just as much as I am a woman writer", but she found herself marginalised by the literary establishment as a feminist writer, and a lesbian; Entmannung, which means "emasculation", has been described, by a conservative German historian, as "a grotesque spearpoint of feminism".eine groteske Speerspitze des Feminismus; Hillgruber. At the end of the 1980s, she left the feminist movement; in Müßiggang ist aller Liebe Anfang, she had written: "Sometimes the gay shirt is closer to me than the feminist skirt."Manchmal / ist mir das schwule hemd / näher / als der feministische rock, "Februar 24 Freitag", quoted in translation in Cathrin Winkelmann, "Christa Reinig's Lesbian Warriors: One Sunday During the War of the Genders", in Queering the Canon: Defying Sights in German Literature and Culture, ed. Christoph Lorey and John L. Plews, Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture, Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House, 1998, , pp. 234–47, p. 234. She also translated Russian literature, and wrote audio dramas. Her last publication, in 2006, was a volume of philosophical thoughts titled, Das Gelbe vom Himmel (The Yellow from Heaven).
Works
Poetry Die Steine von Finisterre. 1961. Partial trans. Ruth and Matthew Mead, The Tightrope Walker. Edinburgh: Rutherford, 1981. Gedichte. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1963. Schwabinger Marterln. Freche Grabsprüche für Huren, Gammler und Poeten. Stierstadt im Taunus: Eremiten, 1969. Schwalbe von Olevano. Stierstadt im Taunus: Eremiten, 1969. Papantscha-Vielerlei: Exotische Produkte Altindiens. Stierstadt im Taunus: Eremiten, 1971. Die Ballade vom Blutigen Bomme. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1972. Müßiggang ist aller Liebe Anfang. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1979. . Munich: Frauenoffensive, 1980. . Trans. Ilze Mueller. Idleness is the Root of All Love. Corvallis, Oregon: Calyx, 1991. Sämtliche Gedichte. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1984. Die Prüfung des Lächlers: Gesammelte Gedichte. Munich: DTV, 1970, 1984.
Stories "Eine Ruine" (1949) and "Ein Fischerdorf" (1951) in Anthologien der DDR Der Traum meiner Verkommenheit. Berlin: Fietkau, 1961. Drei Schiffe: Erzählungen, Dialoge, Berichte. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1965. Orion trat aus dem Haus: neue Sternbilder. Stierstadt im Taunus: Eremiten, 1968. Das grosse Bechterew-Tantra: Exzentrische Anatomie. Stierstadt im Taunus: Eremiten, 1970. Hantipanti: zwölf Kindergeschichten zum Nachdenken und ein Nachwort. Weinheim: Beltz, 1972. Clever Elsie, Frederick and Catherine, and The Goose Girl Meets The Four Bremen City Musicians. Weinheim: Beltz & Gelberg, 1976. Der Wolf und die Witwen: Erzählungen und Essays. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1980. . Munich: Frauenoffensive, 1981. Die ewige Schule. Munich: Frauenoffensive, 1982. Nobody and other stories. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1989. Glück und Glas. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1991. Simsalabim. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1991. Der Frosch im Glas: neue Sprüche. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1994.
Novels Die himmlische und die irdische Geometrie. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1975. Entmannung: die Geschichte Ottos und seiner vier Frauen. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 1976. Die Frau im Brunnen. Munich: Frauenoffensive, 1984.
Audio plays Kleine Chronik der Osterwoche. 1965 Tenakeh. 1965 Wisper. 1967 Das Aquarium. 1967
Non-fiction Das Gelbe vom Himmel: Betrachtungen. Düsseldorf: Eremiten, 2006.
Translations Marina Zwetajewa. Gedichte. Berlin: Wagenbach, .
Honours 1964 Bremen Literature Prize, for Gedichte 1965 Villa Massimo FellowshipDie Stipendiaten der Villa Massimo vom Gründungsjahr 1913 bis 2011 , German Academy in Rome 1968 Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden, for Das AquariumÜbersicht über die preisgekrönten Hörspiele, Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden, Bund der Kriegsblinden Deutschlands 1969 Toucan Prize of the City of Munich (with five others),Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger, Tukan-Preis, City of Munich for Schwabinger Marterln 1973 Literary Award of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts 1975 German Critics' Prize, for Die Prüfung des LächlersDeutscher Kritikerpreis, Literaturpreis Gewinner 1976 Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1984 SWR-Bestenliste Prize, for Sämtliche GedichteSWR-Bestenliste: Kritikerpreis, Literaturpreise, All Around New Books 1993 Roswitha Prize of the City of Bad GandersheimDie Preisträgerinnen des Roswithapreises (Literaturpreis) , City of Bad Gandersheim 1999 Brandenburg Literature Prize 2003 Kester-Haeusler Award of the German Schiller FoundationKester-Haeusler-Ehrengabe, Alle Preisträger chronologisch bis 1995, 6–10 , Deutsche Schillerstiftung von 1859 , Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8 October 2003
References
Sources "Abgestorbener Raum". Interview with Jo Wünsche. Alternative 20 (April 1977) 68–72 Peter Horn. Christa Reinig und das "weibliche Ich". In Frauenliteratur: Autorinnen, Perspektiven, Konzepte. Ed. Manfred Jurgensen. Bern: Lang, 1983. . pp. 101–22 Sibylle Scheßwendter. Darstellung und Auflösung von Lebensproblemen im Werk: Christa Reinig. Doctoral thesis, University of Siegen, 2000. pdf
External links Christa Reinig at the German National Library