Helga Schubert


Helga Schubert is a German psychologist and author.

Life

Helga Schubert is a daughter of a librarian, who was also active in economics, and of a Gerichtsassessor who died as a soldier in 1941; she grew up in East Berlin. Schubert completed her Reifeprüfung and afterwards worked for a year on the assembly line in an industrial plant in Berlin. From 1958 to 1963, she studied psychology at Humboldt University and obtained a diploma in psychology. From 1963 to 1977, she was a full-time clinical psychologist; until 1973, she worked in adult psychotherapy. From 1973 to 1977, she studied for a PhD at Humboldt University but did not obtain the doctorate. From 1977 until 1987, she was active as a conversational therapist at a marital-counseling center in Berlin. During that period, she worked part-time as a psychologist and also as an author. From December 1989 until March 1990, she was a non-partisan press spokeswoman of the East German Round Table in East Berlin. Until his death in August 2025, she lived with painter, writer and leading clinical psychologist Johannes Helm, with whom she was married since 1976, in Neu Meteln, a parish of Alt Meteln near Schwerin—also known as Künstlerkolonie Drispeth.
Schubert, who had wanted to write since she was in her twenties, published a series of children's literature and prose that portrayed everyday life in East Germany. She also wrote theater dramas, radio dramas, television plays, and movie scenarios. After the German reunification, she became known for her documentary work "Judasfrauen," which dealt with denunciation in the Third Reich, based on archival work. Schubert, who belonged to the Schriftstellerverband der DDR from 1976 and PEN Centre of East Germany from 1987, moved to PEN Centre Germany in 1991. She received the following awards, among others: 1982 Script Prize at the second National Film Festival of the DDR for Die Beunruhigung, 1983 Heinrich Greif Prize, 1986 Heinrich Mann Prize, 1991 Honorary Doctorate-Doctor of Humane Letters from Purdue University, 1993 Hans Fallada Prize, and 2020 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.

Works

  • Lauter Leben, Berlin 1975
  • Bimmi und das Hochhausgespenst, Berlin 1980
  • Bimmi und die Victoria A, Berlin 1981
  • Die Beunruhigung, Berlin 1982
  • Bimmi und der schwarze Tag, Berlin 1982
  • Das verbotene Zimmer, Darmstadt 1982
  • Bimmi und ihr Nachmittag, Berlin 1984
  • Blickwinkel, Berlin 1984
  • Anna kann Deutsch, Darmstadt 1985
  • Und morgen wieder..., Berlin 1985
  • Schöne Reise, Berlin 1988
  • Über Gefühle reden?, Berlin 1988
  • Gehen Frauen in die Knie?, Zürich 1990
  • Judasfrauen. Zehn Fallgeschichten weiblicher Denunziation im Dritten Reich, Berlin 1990
  • Bezahlen die Frauen die Wiedervereinigung?, Munich 1992
  • Bimmi vom hohen Haus, Berlin 1992
  • Die Andersdenkende, Munich 1994
  • Das gesprungene Herz, Munich 1995
  • Die Welt da drinnen, Frankfurt am Main 2003

    Literature

  • Alessandro Bigarelli: Ethik und Diskurs im weiblichen Schreiben am Beispiel von Helga Schuberts Geschichten, Frankfurt a. M., Lang, 1998.