Brigitte Zimmermann

Brigitte Zimmermann (born 22 May 1939) is a German journalist. Between 1983 and 1991 she was editor in chief of Wochenpost, East Germany's top selling weekly newspaper.

Life Brigitte Zimmermann was born in Sagan, a small town to the west of Breslau in Silesia. During the ethnic cleansing of 1944/45 the family were relocated, ending up in Weimar, where she grew up. This meant that from the age of 6 she lived in what was administered as the Soviet occupation zone until she was approximately 10½ at which point, in October 1949, the entire zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Her father worked as a decorator: her mother worked in sales.

In 1965 and 1966 Zimmermann attended the International Komsomol Academy in Moscow. Following this she graduated in 1968 from the Institute of Journalism at Leipzig University, thereby obtaining, at the age of 29, a degree from the country's principal university-level journalism academy. According to some sources , differences between the two of them nevertheless brought Zimmermann's FDJ job to an end.

In 1983 Zimmermann took over from as editor in chief of Wochenpost, a post she retained till 1991. Towards the end of her tenure she was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit.