Le Fort, Gertrud von (1876–1971)

German novelist and poet. A belief that God's presence must be acknowledged and proclaimed infuses Der Papst aus dem Ghetto/The Pope from the Ghetto 1930 and Die magdeburgische Hochzeit/Wedding in Magdeburg 1938. A quasi-autobiographical novel in two parts, Das Schweisstuch der Veronika/The Veil of Veronica 1928, 1946, follows the spiritual development of a girl converted to Catholicism, while short stories such as ‘Die letzte am Schafott/The Story at the Scaffold’ 1931 illustrate her usual theme of the redemptive power of religion.