Elfriede Brüning

Elfriede Brüning (8 November 1910 – 5 August 2014) was a German communist journalist and novelist. She also used the pseudonym Elke Klent.

Life and career Elfriede Brüning was born in Berlin, the daughter of a cabinetmaker and a seamstress who were involved in the workers' movement. Forced to leave school after the tenth year to help support the family, she worked in offices; beginning in 1929, she was a secretary at a Berlin film company. After forging a letter of recommendation, she began to publish articles in the Feuilleton sections of newspapers such as the Berliner Tageblatt, the Berliner Börsen-Courier and the Vossische Zeitung. After attending a Marxist Workers' School, In 1932 she joined the Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors; then the youngest in her branch, she was to be the last surviving member. Her first novel, Handwerk hat goldenen Boden, was a social criticism and was to be published in 1933 but was not because of the Nazi seizure of power; it appeared in 1970 under the title Kleine Leute. their daughter Christiane Barckhausen, born in 1942, also became a writer. Her papers for the years 1930–2007 are in the Fritz Hüser Institute in Dortmund.

Selected honours 1960: Patriotic Order of Merit in Bronze 1975: Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver 1980: Goethe Prize of the City of Berlin 1980: Literature Prize of the Democratic Women's League of Germany 1983: Art Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation 1985: Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold

Works Brüning's publications include novels, short stories, journalism and television scripts. Her novels often have an autobiographical element; they usually concern women's lives and even the four she published under the Nazis have female protagonists who are determined to go against the party line by pursuing careers. But especially in the 1950s, she was officially attacked as "petty bourgeois" for her themes of women seeking equality in marriage, and her work was insufficiently optimistic for official tastes. Die Umkehr. Das ist Agnes, Leipzig 1949 Ein Kind für mich allein, Leipzig 1950 Vor uns das Leben, Berlin 1952 Regine Haberkorn, Berlin 1955 Gabriele, Berlin 1956 Rom hauptpostlagernd, Berlin 1958 Sonntag der dreizehnte, Berlin 1960 Wege und Schicksale, Berlin 1962 Das Antlitz unserer Zeit, Berlin 1965 Kinder ohne Eltern, Halle 1968 Kleine Leute, Berlin 1970 Septemberreise, Halle 1974 Hochverrat, Berlin 1975 Jasmina und die Lotosblume, Berlin 1976 Zu meiner Zeit, Halle 1977 Partnerinnen, Halle 1978 Frauenschicksale, Halle 1981 Wie andere Leute auch, Halle 1983 Altweiberspiele und andere Geschichten, Halle 1986 Lästige Zeugen?, Halle 1990 Kinder im Kreidekreis, Berlin 1992 Und außerdem war es mein Leben, Berlin 1994 (autobiography) Jeder lebt für sich allein, Berlin 1999 Spätlese, short stories, Berlin: Dietz, 2000, ; Berlin: Verlag am Park, 2014. Ein Mädchen und zwei Romane, Rostock: BS, 2002, Zeit-Besichtigung, Wilhelmshorst 2003 Gefährtinnen, Berlin 2004 Gedankensplitter, Berlin 2006 40 Kunstwerke aus der DDR, (Ed.), Berlin: Das Neue Berlin, 2009, Nun, ich lebe noch. Deutsche Kommunistinnen in sowjetischen Lagern. Tonbandgespräche, Edition Ost, Berlin: Verlag am Park, 2013.