Daniela Dahn (born 9 October 1949, in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
) is a German writer, journalist and essayist. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, Dahn has been an outspoken critic of the reunification process.
[Rado Pribić]
The trouble with German unification: essays on Daniela Dahn
NoRa-Novitäten & Raritäten, 2008, Her highly personal style of writing, and her strident political opinions, have stirred controversy within Germany, but Dahn, who considered herself a dissident within East Germany before 1989, advocates for a critical journalism that continues the democratic tradition of challenging the government and policies of reunified Germany.
Biography
Dahn is the daughter of the journalist
Karl-Heinz Gerstner and fashion journalist
Sibylle Gerstner, founder of the East German
fashion magazine
Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on journalism, writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about and critique fashion events and trends as well as cultivate and maintain relationships with stylists and ...
"Sibyl", and the older sister of
Sonja Gerstner, who famously documented her own
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
and the professional treatment she received. Dahn was born just two days after the founding of the East German state. Dahn was brought up in
Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated south-west of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and east of Potsdam.
First mentioned in the Landbuch of Karl IV in 1375, the Kleinmachno ...
, Brandenburg in what was then
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
.
Daniela Dahn studied journalism in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
and then worked as a television journalist, editing for GDR Television, before turning to freelance writing in 1981. In 1989 Dahn became one of the founders of the GDR opposition group
Democratic Awakening. She later withdrew from it.
The
Party of Democratic Socialism controversially introduced Dahn as one of their two candidates for the office of
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...
judge in Brandenburg, in 1998. Her nomination was challenged by the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...
and her candidacy was retracted at the last moment, after heated debate among the parties of the
Brandenburg state parliament.
Dahn serves on the Executive Board of the writers' association
PEN
PEN may refer to:
* (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI)
* PEN International, a worldwide association of writers
** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International
** PEN America, located ...
and lectures internationally. Dahn is also on the Advisory Board of the
Humanist Union, and has held the post of Writer in Residence at
Sunderland University in the UK. In addition, Dahn is co-editor of the weekly newspaper ''
der Fritag''. Her husband Jochen Laabs was from 1999 to 2001 Vice-President of PEN Center in Germany.
Along with
Christa Wolf
Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.[Die Linke
Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...]
as their candidate for
President of Germany
The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...
in the
2009 presidential election.
Peter Sodann was eventually chosen instead.
Controversy
In February 2023, Dahn was among the initial signers of a petition calling for an end to military support to
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
in the wake of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.
Works
* ''Prenzlauer Berg-Tour.'' Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle/Leipzig 1987,
* ''Wir bleiben hier oder Wem gehört der Osten''. Pol. Sachbuch, Reinbek 1994,
* ''Westwärts und nicht vergessen. Vom Unbehagen in der Einheit'', Essay. Berlin 1996,
* ''Vertreibung ins Paradies. Unzeitgemäße Texte zur Zeit'', Essays. Reinbek 1998,
* ''In guter Verfassung. Wieviel Kritik braucht die Demokratie?'', Essay u. Dokum., Reinbek 1999,
* ''Wenn und Aber. Anstiftungen zum Widerspruch''. Essays. Reinbek 2002,
* ''Demokratischer Abbruch, Von Trümmern und Tabus'', Essays, Reinbek 2005,
* ''Wehe dem Sieger! Ohne Osten kein Westen'', Rowohlt, 2009,
Awards
*
Ludwig Börne Prize (''Ludwig-Börne-Preis''), 2004
*
Louise Schroeder Medal (''Louise-Schroeder-Medaille''), 2002
*
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satire, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the Kaspar Hauser, historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wr ...
Prize (''Tucholsky-Preis''), 1999
* Fontane Prize (''Fontane-Preis''), 1988
* Berlin Prize (''Berlin-Preis''), 1987
References
External links
* Daniela Dahn website: http://www.danieladahn.de/
* Daniela Dahn’s author page at Rowohlt: http://www.rowohlt.de/autorin/daniela-dahn.html
* Video: Daniela Dahn on the Ukrainian Crisis:
Daniela Dahn: NATO finanzierte ukrainischen Ministerpräsidenten Jazenjuk- Kontext TV”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahn, Daniela
1949 births
Living people
Writers from East Berlin
Writers from Berlin
Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians
Aufstehen
East German writers
East German women
German essayists
German women journalists
German journalists
German women essayists
German women poets
20th-century German women
21st-century German women