Wolf says that all the writers present, young and old, probably felt that they had before them the best possible mentor. A similar view was expressed in the many letters of admiration sent to Seghers by writers from the GDR and abroad on the occasion of her eightieth birthday.
During the immediate postwar years Seghers's novels and stories were published in the West as well as in the East; but during the cold war she fell into disgrace among Western critics. Her steadfast loyalty to the Communist Party delayed the critical reception of her works in the West by more than two decades. But even then, while praised for her artistry, particularly in her exile writings, she was denounced for her official position in East German political and cultural life. Only recently has Seghers's substantial oeuvre received the critical attention it merits as a major body of writing on twentieth-century German social and political history.
Seghers was born Netty Reiling on 19 November 1900 to middle-class liberal Jewish parents in Mainz. Her youth was remarkably carefree and privileged, in contrast to those of many women of her generation. As the only daughter of Isidor Reiling, a well-known art dealer who was also the curator of the art collection of Mainz Cathedral, she grew up in a climate of cultural refinement and learning.
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