orig. Christa Ihlenfeld
born March 18, 1929, Landsberg an der Warthe, Ger.
German novelist, essayist, and screenwriter.
She was reared in a middle-class, pro-Nazi family; after Germany's defeat in 1945, she moved with her family to East Germany. Her work reflects her experiences during World War II and her postwar life in a communist state. Her novels include Divided Heaven (1963), which brought her political favour; The Quest for Christa T. (1968), severely attacked in East Germany; A Model Childhood (1976); Cassandra (1983), her most widely read book, linking nuclear and patriarchal power; and What Remains (1990), on government surveillance and her own links to the East German secret police.