Considering the political orientation of her writing, it is not surprising that Seghers chose to settle in East Germany rather than her native Rhineland after she returned from exile in Mexico in 1947. As she said: "Weil ich hier die Resonanz haben kann, die sich ein Schriftsteller wunscht. . . .Weil ich hier ausdrukken kann, wozu ich gelebt habe" (Here there is the resonance that an author needs. . . . Because here I can express what I have lived for). As a cofounder of the GDR's Academy of the Arts and as the long-term president of the East German Writers' Union, Seghers played a decisive role in the cultural life of her country and influenced and promoted the careers of many established and emerging writers. Recalling Seghers's address to the International Writers' Conference, Christa Wolf—a major contemporary German literary voice in her own right—captures the aura that surrounded Seghers whenever she spoke in public: "Es war still in jenem Saal in Weimar im Mai des Jahres funfundsechzig, als sie die Buhne betrat, und es blieb still, solange sie sprach" (There was total silence when she appeared on the platform in that hall in Weimar in May 1965 as long as she spoke).
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