Irina Liebmann

Irina Liebmann was born in Moscow, USSR, the daughter of Rudolf Herrnstadt, a German Communist journalist and politician and his wife Valentina, a Russian expert in German studies. In 1945, following the end of World War II, the family moved back to Germany and settled in East Berlin.

Irina attended schools in Berlin, Merseburg and Halle (Saale), then went to the University of Leipzig, from which she graduated in 1966. From 1967 to 1975, she was an editor at the magazine Deutsche Aussenpolitik (German Foreign Policy). She then became a freelance journalist and writer, first reporting for the Ost-Berliner Wochenpost, but also writing radio plays and novels.



An increasing dissatisfaction with life and conditions in East Germany led to her relocating to West Berlin with her family in 1988.

She is a member of the German Academy of Language and Poetry.