Museumsportal Berlin

For almost three decades, from 1955 until her death in 1983, Anna Seghers lived in a inconspicuous apartment house in Adlershof in Southern Berlins. Here, at Volkswohlstraße 81, now Anna-Seghers-Straße, she had found a place where she could live as she wanted, and, above all, could work undisturbed.

Since 1985, the Anna-Seghers-memorial site is accessible to the public. Almost everything remains unchanged. At the living room and the study room, one can see the extensive library. There are about 10.000 books, some of them very old and rare, in book shells which reach up under the ceiling. Most of them have the bookplates of Netty Reiling, Anna Seghers maiden name.

The apartment is functionally furnished with furniture from the 1950s, simple, stable wooden tables, a comfortable lounge and a big tiled stove with a bench. On the writing desk at the study room, there is the old Remington typing machine which was brought from her exile in Mexico to Germany.

In the room of Lásló Radványi, Anna Seghers’ husband, one can see, besides the collection of first editions and an extensive collection of German and foreign-language copies, a small permanent exhibition on the life and work of Anna Seghers.

The Anna-Seghers-memorial site belongs to the Akademie der Künste.