Gisela Karau (birth name: Wilczynski; 28 March 1932 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 ...

– 9 April 2010 in Berlin) was an East

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. Born in Berlin, she was married and had two children.

Life

Gisela Karau was born in Berlin 1932. After finishing her school leaving examination in 1950 she began a five-year job training at the newspaper '' BZ am Abend''. She worked as a reporter and a columnist for that newspaper until 1990 on a freelance basis. In the 1960s she began writing children's literature. Her first work was the novel ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.'' (1972). The book is about the fate of Polish children in

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

. The book became famous and was also reprinted after 1990. Other popular children's books in the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

written by Gisela Karau include ''Darf ich Wilhelm zu Dir sagen?'' (1979) about

Wilhelm Pieck Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (; 3 January 1876 – 7 September 1960) was a German communist politician who served as the Leadership of East Germany, chairman of the Socialist Unity Party from 1946 to 1950 and as the only president of the Ger ...

's life and ''Loni'' (1982) about a girl in Berlin a few years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Furthermore, she wrote the screenplays of many children's films produced by

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...

, the state-owned film studio. The film ''Mein blauer Vogel fliegt'' was based on ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.''. She also published books for adults, like the novels ''Berliner Liebe'' (1984) and ''Familienkrach'' (1988) in the GDR. In 1986, Karau was awarded the Goethe prize of the City of Berlin. After the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

she wrote some novels about the destiny of people in the GDR, in the Wende and in the

New states of Germany The new states of Germany () are the five re-established states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) that unified with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with its 10 "old states" upon German reunification on 3 October 1990. Th ...

after 1990. She also published more children's books like ''Bolle, der freundliche Hund'' (1994), ''Küsse auf Eis '' (1997) and ''Das kommt in der besten Familie vor'' (2003). Gisela Karau married Günter Karau, with whom she had two children. After the death of her first husband in 1986, she married Hans-Jürgen Dörry, 18 years her junior, in 1988. She died in 2010 in a Berlin hospital.

Works (selection)

; Children's literature: * ''Der gute Stern des Janusz K.'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1972 (The good star of Janusz K.) * ''Darf ich Wilhelm zu Dir sagen?'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1979 (Can I call you Wilhelm?) * ''Loni.'' Kinderbuchverlag Berlin, Berlin 1982 * ''Bolle, der freundliche Hund.'' Kiro-Verlag, Schwedt 1994 (Bolle, the friendly dog) * ''Küsse auf Eis.'' Karl-Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1997 (Kisses on ice) * ''Das kommt in der besten Familie vor.'' Cecilie-Dressler-Verlag, Hamburg 2003 * ''Toni und Ali. Bilder einer Jugendliebe.'' Edition Hamouda, Leipzig 2007 * ''Cosima. Verliebt in Sanssouci.'' Edition Hamouda, Leipzig 2007 ; Novels: * ''Berliner Liebe.'' Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1984 (Berlin love) * ''Familienkrach.'' Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1988 (Family quarrel) * ''Ein gemachter Mann.'' Verlag Neues Leben, 1991 (A made man) * ''Marthas Haus oder Der Kopf im Keller.'' Kiro-Verlag, Schwedt 1994 (Martha's house or the head in the basement)

Literature

* Bernd-Rainer Barth, Andreas Kölling: Karau, Gisela. In: Wer war wer in der DDR? 4. Ausgabe. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, , Band 1, S. 485. (Who was who in the

References

Catalogue of the German National Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karau, Gisela 1932 births 2010 deaths German women writers