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Daniela Dahn | |
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.jpg) Daniela Dahn in 2012 | |
| Born | (1949-10-09)9 October 1949 (age 75) |
| Nationality | German |
| Awards | Ludwig Börne Prize (Ludwig-Börne-Preis), 2004,Louise Schroeder Medal (Louise-Schroeder-Medaille), 2002,Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Tucholsky-Preis), 1999, Fontane Prize (Fontane-Preis), 1988 |
Daniela Dahn (born 9 October 1949, inBerlin) is a German writer, journalist and essayist. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, Dahn has been an outspoken critic of the reunification process.[1] Her highly personal style of writing,[2] and her strident political opinions, have stirred controversy within Germany, but Dahn, who considered herself a dissident within East Germany before 1989, advocates for a critical journalism that continues the democratic tradition of challenging the government and policies of reunified Germany.[1]
Dahn is the daughter of the journalistKarl-Heinz Gerstner and fashion journalistSibylle Gerstner, founder of the East Germanfashion magazine "Sibyl", and the older sister ofSonja Gerstner, who famously documented her ownmental illness and the professional treatment she received. Dahn was born just two days after the founding of the East German state. Dahn was brought up inKleinmachnow, Brandenburg in what was thenEast Germany.
Daniela Dahn studied journalism inLeipzig and then worked as a television journalist, editing for GDR Television, before turning to freelance writing in 1981. In 1989 Dahn became one of the founders of the GDR opposition groupDemocratic Awakening. She later withdrew from it.[3]
TheParty of Democratic Socialism controversially introduced Dahn as one of their two candidates for the office ofConstitutional Court judge in Brandenburg, in 1998. Her nomination was challenged by theSocial Democratic Party of Germany and her candidacy was retracted at the last moment, after heated debate among the parties of theBrandenburg state parliament.
Dahn serves on the Executive Board of the writers' associationPEN and lectures internationally.[4] Dahn is also on the Advisory Board of theHumanist Union, and has held the post of Writer in Residence atSunderland University in the UK. In addition, Dahn is co-editor of the weekly newspaperder Fritag. Her husband Jochen Laabs was from 1999 to 2001 Vice-President of PEN Center in Germany.
Along withChrista Wolf, with whom she has collaborated in the past, Dahn was seen as a possible choice byDie Linke as their candidate forPresident of Germany in the2009 presidential election.[5]Peter Sodann was eventually chosen instead.
In February 2023, Dahn was among the initial signers of a petition calling for an end to military support toUkraine in the wake of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
