Barbara Honigmann (born 12 February 1949 in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

) is a German author, artist and theater director. Honigmann is the daughter of Jewish emigrant parents, who returned to

in 1947 after a period of exile in Great Britain. Her parents were

Litzi Friedmann Alice Friedmann (née Kohlmann; 1910–1991), known as Litzi Friedmann, was an Austrian Communist who was the first wife of Kim Philby, a member of the Cambridge Five. Records identify her as the Soviet agent with the code name Mary. Early life F ...

(1910–1991; Alice Kohlmann), an Austrian

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

who was the first wife of

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British ...

, a member of the

Cambridge Five The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted ...

, and Georg Honigmann, PhD (1903–1984). Her mother was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and worked in film dubbing in her later years. Her father was born in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, Germany and was the chief editor of the ''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...

'' while also being a filmmaker. The couple divorced in 1954. From 1967 to 1972, Barbara Honigmann studied theater at

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Willi ...

in East Berlin. In the following years she worked as a dramatist and director in

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...

and

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. She has been a freelance writer since 1975. In 1981, she married Peter Obermann who later took her surname; the two went on to have two children together, Johannes (b. 1976) and Ruben (b. 1983). In 1984, she and Peter left the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

to move to a German Jewish community in

Strasbourg, France Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eur ...

. Honigmann began finally to explore her German roots in the end of the 20th century According to Emily Jeremiah from The Institute of Modern Languages Research, "Honigmann’s texts are also paradigmatic of post-exile writings by German-Jewish authors. In addition, they offer examples of literary reactions to the demise of the GDR by its decamped intellectuals, and represent the articulations of a new generation of women writers"

Life in the theater

Honigmann worked for many years in theater as a playwright and dramatist. In addition to working in Brandenburg, she also worked in the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Some of the plays she wrote were later changed into radio plays. Both of her plays and radio plays have elements of fairy tales or historical lives weaved into them. One of Honigmann's radio plays was awarded with "radio play of the month" by the South German Radio Station.

Awards

* 1986 –

Aspekte-Literaturpreis The Aspekte-Literaturpreis (''Aspekte'' Literature Prize) is awarded annually for the best debut novel written in German, as judged by a panel of writers, critics, and scholars. The prize is sponsored by the ZDF television network through its arts ...

* 1992 – * 1994 – * 1996 – Ehrengabe der Deutschen Schillerstiftung * 2000 –

Kleist Prize The Kleist Prize is an annual German literature prize. The prize was first awarded in 1912, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist. The Kleist Prize was the most important literary award of the Weimar Repu ...

* 2001 – Jeanette-Schocken-Preis * 2004 –

Solothurner Literaturpreis The Solothurner Literaturpreis is a literary award for a literary achievement by a German language writer. Awarded since 1994, the annual prize is 15,000 Swiss francs. It is named after the city of Solothurn in Switzerland. Winners *1994: Moni ...

* 2004 –

Koret Jewish Book Award The Koret Jewish Book Award is an annual award that recognizes "recently published books on any aspect of Jewish life in the categories of biography/autobiography and literary studies, fiction, history and philosophy/thought published in, or transla ...

* 2011 – Max Frisch Prize

Works

* ''Das singende, springende Löweneckerchen'', Berlin 1979 * '' Der Schneider von Ulm'', Berlin 1981 * ''Don Juan'', Berlin 1981 * ''Roman von einem Kinde'', Darmstadt .a.1986 * ''Eine Liebe aus nichts'', Reinbek: Rowohlt 1991 * ''Soharas Reise'', Berlin 1996 * ''Am Sonntag spielt der Rabbi Fußball'', Heidelberg: Wunderhorn 1998 * ''Damals, dann und danach'', München: Hanser 1999 * ''Alles, alles Liebe!'', Munich: dtv 2000 * ''Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben'', Munich: Hanser 2004 * ''Das Gesicht wiederfinden. Über Schreiben, Schriftsteller und Judentum'', Munich: Hanser 2006 & * ''Blick übers Tal. Zu Fotos von Arnold Zwahlen'' Basel/Weil am Rhein: Engeler 2007, * ''Das überirdische Licht: Rückkehr nach New York'', Munich: Hanser 2008 & * ''Bilder von A.'', Munich: Hanser 2011 & * ''Chronik meiner Straße'', Munich: Hanser 2015 &

Translations

* Lev Ustinov: ''Die Holz-Eisenbahn'', Berlin 1979 (with Nelly Drechsler) *

Anna Akhmatova Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...

: ''Vor den Fenstern Frost'', Berlin 1988 (with Fritz Mierau)

References

Barbara Honigmann
in

Jewish Women's Archive The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to document "Jewish women's stories, elevate their voices, and inspire them to be agents of change." JWA was founded by Gail Twersky Reimer in 1995 in Brookli ...

External links

Barbara Honigmann
on

artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honigmann, Barbara 1949 births Living people People from East Berlin 20th-century German novelists 21st-century German novelists 20th-century German Jews German women dramatists and playwrights East German writers Writers from Berlin Jewish women writers German women novelists Kleist Prize winners 21st-century German women writers 20th-century German women writers 21st-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights