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Woman in the Pillory

Woman in the Pillory

Summary

Kathrin – five years into a disenchanting marriage – struggles to work the farm with her sister-in-law while her husband Heinrich is away fighting for the Third Reich. To help them with the harvest, Heinrich arranges for Alexei, a Russian prisoner of war, to labour in the fields. Though initially suspicious of this watchful stranger, Kathrin is soon drawn to Alexei, with ruinous consequences.

First published in 1956, Woman in the Pillory is a formative novella by one of East Germany’s most significant writers, showcasing Brigitte Reimann’s vivacious ideological engagement with the legacy of Nazi Germany and the Communist drive to create ‘a new kind of person’ following the devastation of the war.

About the author

Brigitte Reimann

Brigitte Reimann (1933-1973) was among East Germany's most significant writers. Like her heroines, she was spirited and outspoken, addressing issues and sensibilities otherwise repressed in the GDR. She believed passion­ately in socialism, yet never joined the party; stayed with her second husband, yet pursued a series of affairs. Her stated aim was to live 'thirty wild years instead of seventy well-behaved ones'. In 1960, her brother left for the West and she began writing Siblings. She died from cancer at the age of thirty-nine, a celebrated writer and cult figure.
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