Jutta Resch-Treuwerth

Jutta Resch-Treuwerth (30 April 1941 - 18 February 2015) was a German journalist. She became well known the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) as a marriage and relationship counsellor.

Life Jutta Treuwerth was born in the Tiergarten quarter of north-central Berlin during the first part of the war. She was bought up by her grandparents in Berlin-Lichtenberg. As was normal in East Germany at this time, on leaving school she was required to spend a year in industry - in her case employed in the brown coal industry in Lusatia - before progressing to a year's internship at Junge Welt, the daily newspaper that had become the official publication of the FDJ - which was in effect the youth wing of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED). Hormonally based contraception pills had recently become available at no cost through health insurance, while in East Germany (in contrast to West Germany) it had also become possible to have legal abortions up to the third month of pregnancy. In the east as in the west, questions which for previous generations would frequently have been answered with a simple "no" from the grown ups, now frequently triggered more nuanced answers, and there is a real sense that for a new generation of teenagers and young adults Jutta Resch-Treuwerth was as influential as anyone in setting behavioural parameters.

After the changes which turned out to be a prelude to reunification in 1990, Resch-Treuwerth left Junge Welt in 1992 and launched herself as a freelance counsellor, working for various media outlets.

Publication (selection)

1982: Leben zu Zweit, Verlag Neues Leben. 1986: Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet , Verlag Neues Leben. 1986: Ich hab dich lieb – Briefgeschichten, Verlag Junge Welt. 1987: Vierzehn geworden, Verlag Neues Leben. 2001: Unter vier Augen, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2011: Warum denn nicht, Verlag Neues Leben.

Awards and honours 1981 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze