Luise Rinser

After finishing school with a high school diploma, she studied psychology and education. From 1935 she worked as a primary school teacher, but forestalled her dismissal by resigning herself because she did not want to be employed by the NSDAP or the Nazi formation. Her first work, entitled "The Glass Rings," was published in 1941. The book got her banned from publishing and jailed. Rinser was arrested in 1944 for high treason and undermining military strength. She was threatened with the death sentence, but the sentence was not carried out because she was freed by the Americans. She wrote down the experiences of that time in her novel "Prison Diary". Rinser became one of the most famous German writers of the post-war period. From 1945 to 1953 she worked as a freelancer for the "Neue Zeitung" in Munich. The books "Mitte des Leben" and "Daniela" were written during this time. In 1959 she married the composer Carl Orff for the second time, but the marriage only lasted six years. Her first husband died in the war. After her divorce from Orff, she lived for a long time in Rocca di Papa near Rome. She was friends with the composer Isang Yun and the theologian Karl Rahner. "The Perfect Joy" and "I am Tobias" were published in the 1960s. However, she actively intervened in the political and social discussion in Germany, supported Willy Brandt in his election campaign in 1971/72, and demonstrated with the writers Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass and many others against the retrofitting of the Federal Republic of Germany with Pershing missiles. In the years from 1972, Luise Rinser traveled to the Soviet Union, the USA, Spain, India, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea several times, Iran, Japan, Colombia and many other countries. She was committed to abolishing the abortion paragraph § 218 in its current form. Rinser also became a sharp critic of the Catholic Church, but did not leave it. She took part in the Second Vatican Council as an accredited journalist. In an open letter she criticized the arson verdict against Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and others and wrote to Ensslin's father: "Gudrun has found a friend for life in me." She became a leading voice of so-called left-wing Catholicism in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1977 Luise Rinser was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. In 1984 she was nominated by the Greens for the office of Federal President against Richard von Weizsäcker. Other well-known works appeared such as "Mirjam" (1983), "Stories from the Lion's Den" (1986) and "Abelard's Love" (1991). The last publication was the legend "Brother Donkey". Luise Rinser died of heart failure on March 18, 2002 in Unterhaching near Munich.