Wolf, Christa (1929– )

German writer. She established her reputation, and earned the approval of the East German government, with her second novel, Der geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (1963), in which the heroine decides to forsake her romantic interest and the freedoms of the West to stay in East Germany. Though she was supportive of Marxist ideals, she was later critical of the German Democratic Republic – as in her novel The Quest for Christa T (1969), which was banned in East Germany.

Her other works include Kindheitsmuster/A Model Childhood (1976), Till Eulenspiegel (1972), Parting from Phantoms: Selected Writings 1990–1994, and Medea (1998).

Wolf was born in Landsberg-an-de-Warthe (now the Polish town of Gorzów Wielkpolski), fleeing in 1945 from the post-war Russian invasion to Mecklenburg in East Germany. She studied German literature at the Universities of Jena and Leipzig before working as a research assistant for the East German Writer's Union and as chief editor for the publishing company Neues Leben. In 1959 she moved to Halle where she worked in a factory and as a freelance editor; she moved to Berlin and became a full-time writer in 1962. She renounced reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, displaying her commitment to socialist values. Wolf has also been censured for working as a collaborator with the East German police.