A Woman in Berlin

For the film, see A Woman in Berlin (film).

A Woman in Berlin
AuthorMarta Hillers
GenreMemoir
Published in English
1954

A Woman in Berlin (German: Eine Frau in Berlin) is a memoir by German journalist Marta Hillers, originally released anonymously in 1954. The identity of Hillers as the author was not revealed until 2003, after her death.[1] The memoir covers the period between 20 April and 22 June 1945 in Berlin during the capture and occupation of the city by the Red Army. The work depicts the widespread rape of civilians by Soviet soldiers, including the rape of the author. It also looks at a woman's pragmatic approach to survival, which involved relying on Soviet officers for protection.

The first English edition appeared 1954 in the United States, where it was very successful, and was followed rapidly by translations into Dutch, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, and Japanese. When finally published in German in 1959,[2] the book was either "ignored or reviled" in Germany.[3] Based upon the reception within her home country, Hillers refused to have another edition of the work published during her lifetime.

In 2003, two years after Hillers' death, a new edition of the book was published in Germany, again anonymously. It met with wide critical acclaim and was on bestseller lists for more than 19 weeks. Jens Bisky, a German literary editor, identified the anonymous author that year as German journalist Marta Hillers, who had died in 2001.[4] This revelation caused a literary controversy, and questions of the book's authenticity were explored. The book was published again in English in 2005 in editions in the United Kingdom and the United States.[5] It has been translated into seven other languages.

The book was adapted as a 2008 German feature film, directed by Max Färberböck and starring Nina Hoss. It was released in the United States as A Woman in Berlin in 2008.

Coincidentally, also in 2008, the English translation of the book by Philip Boehm (Virago, 2005) was dramatised as a one-woman monologue, by the playwright Iain McClure,[6] and staged at the New Works, New Worlds Festival at the Arches Theatre, Glasgow in 2009.

  1. ^ Luke Harding (2003-10-05). "Row over naming of rape author". The Observer. Retrieved 2014-09-08.
  2. ^ Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (2005). A Woman in Berlin. New York, NY: Hannelore Marek. Foreword. ISBN 978-0-312-42611-8.
  3. ^ Halley, Janet (2008). "Rape in Berlin: Reconsidering the Criminalisation of Rape in the International Law of Armed Conflict. Chapter: A Reading A Woman in Berlin, Reading Rape". Melbourne Journal of International Law. 9 (1): 78.
  4. ^ "The life and times of Marta Dietschy-Hillers – Introduction". Clarissa Schnabel (in German). 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2018-03-19.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference book2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Iain McClure".