Author. She was best known for her writings in the Low German dialect and for caring for the literary estate of her son Wolfgang. A the age of 16, she married the local teacher. He introduced her to literary circles in Hamburg. She was encouraged by her husband to write, and she chose topics from her youth in the dialect of the area. Her first story was published in 1927 in the "Hamburger Nachrichten", a major newspaper in that city, and she became a member of GEDOK, a European woman artists' collective. Her stories were regularly published and read on the radio nationwide. Under the Nazi regime, works from Low German were collected and popularized, but she soon found herself in conflict, like her son, with the authorities. However, since her work was popular and apolitical, it continued to be published, though she was forced to work as a laborer in a bakery to show her "political commitment". After World War II, she ended her writing career to take care of her seriously ill son, and then after his death in 1947, she founded the Wolfgang Borchert Archives, which she donated to the State and University Library of Hamburg in 1976. In 1969, she briefly returned to writing, publishing her autobiography (in Low German).
Author. She was best known for her writings in the Low German dialect and for caring for the literary estate of her son Wolfgang. A the age of 16, she married the local teacher. He introduced her to literary circles in Hamburg. She was encouraged by her husband to write, and she chose topics from her youth in the dialect of the area. Her first story was published in 1927 in the "Hamburger Nachrichten", a major newspaper in that city, and she became a member of GEDOK, a European woman artists' collective. Her stories were regularly published and read on the radio nationwide. Under the Nazi regime, works from Low German were collected and popularized, but she soon found herself in conflict, like her son, with the authorities. However, since her work was popular and apolitical, it continued to be published, though she was forced to work as a laborer in a bakery to show her "political commitment". After World War II, she ended her writing career to take care of her seriously ill son, and then after his death in 1947, she founded the Wolfgang Borchert Archives, which she donated to the State and University Library of Hamburg in 1976. In 1969, she briefly returned to writing, publishing her autobiography (in Low German).
Bio by: Kenneth Gilbert
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