Elisabeth Hering (née Leicht, first married name Ackner; 17 January 1909, Klausenburg, Austria-Hungary – 15 July 1999, Leipzig, Germany) was an East German writer, primarily known for her work in historical novels and children's literature. In 1956, she received the Ministry of Culture of the GDR award for the best work for children and youth.
Hering came from an educated family of Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania, then in Austria-Hungary and now in Romania. In her first marriage, she was the wife of a pastor and had five children. Since 1944, she lived in East Germany, primarily in Leipzig. In 1951, she published her first works in the historical novel genre, producing eleven books focused on Ancient Egypt, Korea, Muslim countries, and Germany and Austria from the 17th to 20th centuries. She also published two children's books, a popular science work on the history of Middle Eastern scripts, and retellings and adaptations of German and Romanian fairy tales, Eastern epics, and Scandinavian sagas. Her works have been translated into six languages, including Russian, Italian, and Hungarian. After 2011, the Leipzig-based publisher Buchfunk Verlag reissued Hering's works in electronic format and as audiobooks.
Biography
Early years Elisabeth Leicht was born in Klausenburg, Austria-Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania), on Sunday, 17 January 1909. She belonged to the German minority in Transylvania and was the first child of lawyer Hans Leicht and his 21-year-old wife, Eliza Bacon. The Transylvanian Saxons in urban settings were considered "patricians", typically engaged in liberal professions and affiliated with the Lutheran Church. Her maternal grandfather, Josef Bacon, was a city doctor in Schässburg (now Sighișoara), also maintaining a private practice. Josef Bacon was best known for his historical studies: he collected items of Transylvanian folk culture and art, was passionate about landscape gardening, and later opened a local history museum in the Old Tower. He also led the city's Templar lodge. Josef once took his daughter on a trip to the Balkans and Italy; he had a cool relationship with his son-in-law. Due to her parents' modest income, Elisabeth's childhood was spent in her grandfather's house. The maids were Hungarians, and they arose her interest in languages. In middle school, studying Romanian became mandatory after Romanian troops entered Transylvania in 1918. Elisabeth's sister, Irmgard (born 1913), remembered that earning good grades in Romanian was considered shameful among the Saxons.
Grandfather Josef recognized Elisabeth's intellectual abilities and nurtured them. As a child, she got diphtheria and received an experimental vaccine purchased by Dr. Bacon at a medical congress in Jena. From age 12, Elisabeth was entrusted with leading tours at the local history museum; around the same time, she began writing poetry, emulating her father. She also developed a love for reading aloud (initially to relatives her age), a passion she maintained into old age. In 1923, Romania banned co-education, and Elisabeth, after nine years of study, was forced to leave the only school in Sighișoara. The school's teaching standard was high; for instance, mathematics and physics were taught by Hermann Oberth. A German girls' school existed in Sibiu, but the family lacked the means to send her there. Despite the birth of a third daughter, Gerda, in 1919, Hans Leicht (a classmate of Béla Kun and a commissar for minority affairs in the Hungarian Soviet Republic) demanded a divorce.
First marriage Elisabeth Hering wrote briefly about her first marriage in her later autobiography, noting only that at 18, she married pastor Hans Ackner, who was twice her age and prone to alcoholism. Hans later recalled that she handed him a letter proposing marriage after a church service. Dr. Bacon gave his consent, and the engagement took place on his 70th birthday. Elisabeth was sent to her aunt in Halchiu to learn cooking and household management. The wedding occurred on 23 June 1927. Elisabeth and Hans's children and grandchildren speculated that her primary motivation for the hasty marriage was to pass her matura exams. The marriage began poorly: the honeymoon in Sibiu was marked by frequent arguments. Elisabeth's first pregnancy was complicated by kidney inflammation, and she spent two or three months with a high fever. Her premature son, born at seven months, was baptized by his father and lived only two weeks.
In 1929, Pastor Ackner was sent to Leipzig for advanced training before taking a parish. Elisabeth accompanied him to Budapest, where she met her father and his new wife. In Leipzig, she pursued self-education, and her relationship with Hans improved. She then spent three months in Basel learning newborn care, living under the supervision of her husband's mentor, Pastor Ansbach. In September, the couple reunited in Breslau and moved to the Markersbach parish. Her second pregnancy was again complicated by kidney, prompting her to seek treatment with an aunt in Dresden. In 1930, through Elisabeth's efforts, Hans secured a parish in Sibiu, her hometown, where their son Richard was born on 26 May. The subsequent years of their marriage were tumultuous: Hans had outbursts, physically abused Elisabeth, and later repented. Once, during a vacation in Varna, Elisabeth left him but returned out of duty. Their daughter Lizchen was born in 1933. In 1934, the couple attended a German crafts exhibition in Germany, where Elisabeth promoted Transylvanian folk art, led tours, and gave lectures. In 1936, Frau Ackner independently showcased an exhibition of Transylvanian costumes in Hamburg. The couple earned enough to buy a house in Hammersdorf, a suburb of Sibiu, where their sons Hermann (24 November 1939) and Fritz (17 December 1941) were born. Their relationship deteriorated further, with Hans openly engaging in affairs with married women or schoolteacher colleagues. No personal accounts from Elisabeth survive from these years.
World War II and divorce In 1940, the German community of Transylvania came under the authority of Nazi Germany. Elisabeth sought intellectual self-expression, contributing to newspapers and joining an association of Transylvanian Germans founded by family friend and schoolteacher Wilhelm Schunn (1888–1965). Hans served under Bishop Wilhelm Staedel, who in 1942 established a Romanian branch of the Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life. On 15 March 1942, the newspaper Südostdeutsche Tageszeitung published an open letter, Confession of German Pastors, calling the de-Judaization of church service and life being an urgent and deliberate task. Hans Ackner's signature appeared among the signatories. He was later sent to the Soviet Union on a mission to provide pastoral care to resettled Soviet Germans on territories occupied by the Wehrmacht. In November 1942, Pastor Ackner traveled to Transnistria and Odesa, staying until May 1943. In July, the Evangelical mission was relocated to the General Government, and Elisabeth with her children, arrived to Cernăuți () on 30 September and Lemberg on 1 October. Wilhelm Schunn accompanied her, as authorities believed the Transylvanian Germans' community organization experience would be useful. Hans was often absent, overseeing 28 villages, which took about a month to visit. He eventually settled the family in Stryi, where houses became available after the ghetto's liquidation. Thirteen-year-old Richard was sent to his grandmother in Sighișoara, increasing expenses, as money transfers to Romania were delayed. Hans secured a temporary pastor position in Stryi. On 18 August 1944, he retrieved Richard from Romania, five days before the country joined the Anti-Hitler Coalition. On 1 September 1944, Romania's Ministry of Culture dismissed Hans for "hostile actions against the Romanian state". When Elisabeth got pregnant for the sixth time, Hans sent her to Thuringia, near Erfurt, where their youngest daughter, Wilhelmine ("Wilmi"), was born on 8 December. This area later became part of the GDR.
By spring 1945, the Ackner family's situation was dire due to property loss during evacuation, and Richard, drafted into the Volkssturm, was missing. The war's end clarified that Hans and Elisabeth had no reason to stay together: Hans's diary entry on 16 August noted Elisabeth's firm declaration that they would part “when things return to normal”. The winter of 1945–1946 was spent in a pastor's village house, all crowded in one heated room. Elisabeth's illness caused concern in Hans's diary, as he relied heavily on her for household matters. The family survived the summer by working in fields and gardens, subsisting on foraged food, unable to afford new clothes or provisions. Hans's diary noted 14 days of eating only vegetables and water-based soups without fats or flour. Their eldest daughter worked at the Magdalena Asylum in Altenburg, attending secondary school. Hans's last diary entry was dated 22 June 1947. In 1949, he received a new parish near Altenburg. A court ruling on 26 November 1951 dissolved Hans and Elisabeth's marriage. In 1950, a severe conflict arose between Hans and Richard, who dropped out of 12th grade, joined the SED, and worked at the Wismut Soviet-German enterprise, leading its party cell. Hans disowned him, and they did not speak for over a decade. The younger sons were to stay with Hans, but his second marriage to a widow with two children was highly unsuccessful, prompting Elisabeth to take Hermann and Fritz. Hans Ackner died on 30 January 1967 in Mühlhausen.
New vocation and second marriage
Elisabeth Ackner had literary ambitions from youth, but her poetic works and the novella Jakob Reiziger remained unfinished. In a 1958 public lecture, she noted that as a mother of five, she lacked time and energy for writing. Poetry was possible only when "the children were not just in bed but quiet, and mental work kept me awake in the dark". If she recalled the text in the morning, she wrote it down. Writing was a deeply conscious need for Elisabeth. From the years before her divorce, two essays survived: Thoughts on Marriage Legislation and Woman in the Light of the Gospel, penciled on the back of parish documents, including birth and death certificates.