Anna Leibbrand

Anna Leibbrand (2 May 1902 – 24 July 1972) was a left-wing German political activist and writer.

She left Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime, but twenty years later, after returning to Germany was arrested and for several years imprisoned, in the aftermath of the Noel Field espionage affair.

Life Anna Wiedemann was born in Munich where her father worked as a printer, By 1927 they were living in Moscow where she worked for the Comintern as a typist till 1929. She also undertook illegal work for the Italian Communist Party at this time.

Both Friedrich and Anna Schlotterbeck were released from prison early in 1956, however. and became close friends with fellow writers Gerhard and Christa Wolf. In 1968 Anna Schlotterbeck prepared a manuscript entitled "Hohenschönhausen, Zelle 51", which dealt with her experiences of state detention in East Germany, and which was published in the West in 1986, some fourteen years following her death in 1972. East German fellow-citizens would need to await German reunification in 1990 before being able to access a copy legally.