Anna Seghers
A German novelist who channeled the terror and moral fractures of her escape from the Nazis into stark, enduring stories of resistance and survival.
1900–1983 (age 83)·German writer·Birthday: November 19·The Lost Generation
Biography
Anna Seghers, born Netty Reiling in Mainz, forged her pen name and her purpose in the furnace of 20th-century upheaval. A Jewish leftist, she established herself as a writer with a social conscience even before the Nazis took power. Forced to flee Germany in 1933, she began a harrowing odyssey across Europe, an experience that would define her life and work. After the fall of France, she and her family made a narrow escape, eventually finding refuge in Mexico City. It was there, in exile, that she wrote her masterpiece, 'The Seventh Cross,' a gripping novel about the relentless hunt for escapees from a Nazi camp that became an international sensation and a Hollywood film. Returning to East Germany after the war, she became a major literary figure, though her work never lost its focus on the individual caught in history's brutal machinery.
The Lost Generation
1883–1900
Came of age during World War I. Disillusioned by the carnage, they rejected the certainties of the Victorian era and built modernism from the wreckage — in art, literature, and politics.
Anna was born in 1900, placing them squarely in The Lost Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Anna Was Born
The biggest hits of 1900
Anna's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1900Born
Boxer Rebellion in China
President: William McKinley
1905Started school
Einstein publishes the theory of special relativity
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1913Became a teenager
The Federal Reserve is established
President: Woodrow Wilson
1916Could drive
The Battle of the Somme claims over a million casualties
President: Woodrow Wilson
1918Could vote
World War I ends; Spanish flu pandemic kills millions
President: Woodrow Wilson
1921Turned 21
First commercial radio broadcasts
President: Warren G. Harding"My Man" — Fanny Brice
1930Turned 30
Pluto discovered
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,510President: Herbert Hoover"Body and Soul" — Paul WhitemanBest Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
1940Turned 40
The Blitz: Germany bombs London
Gas: $0.18/galHome: $2,938Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"I'll Never Smile Again" — Tommy DorseyBest Picture: Rebecca
1950Turned 50
Korean War begins
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,354Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Goodnight Irene" — Gordon Jenkins & The WeaversBest Picture: All About Eve
1960Turned 60
Kennedy-Nixon debates become first televised presidential debates
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,900Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Theme from A Summer Place" — Percy FaithBest Picture: The Apartment
1970Turned 70
First Earth Day; The Beatles break up
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $17,000Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Bridge over Troubled Water" — Simon & GarfunkelBest Picture: Patton
1980Turned 80
John Lennon shot and killed in New York
Gas: $1.19/galHome: $47,200Min wage: $3.10/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Call Me" — BlondieBest Picture: Ordinary People
1983Died at 83
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
Key Achievements
- Wrote the seminal novel 'The Seventh Cross' (1942), a bestselling and filmed account of anti-fascist resistance.
- Escaped Nazi-occupied Europe via the Pyrenees and Marseille, eventually receiving asylum in Mexico, where she lived from 1941 to 1947.
- Served as the first president of the Writers' Union of East Germany and was a founding figure in its post-war literary culture.
- Awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, the highest German literary honor, in 1947.
Did You Know?
Her best-known novel, 'The Seventh Cross,' was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in the U.S. and was adapted into a film starring Spencer Tracy.
She was friends with other famous exiles in Mexico, including the muralist Diego Rivera.
While in Mexican exile, she wrote a novel set in the Aztec empire, 'The Dead Stay Young.'
She survived a serious traffic accident in 1943 that left her with a lasting head injury.
“Everywhere in the world, people were sitting in prisons, and everywhere others were working for their release.”
