Supplemented biographies. In search of Helga M. Novak’s roots

Abstract

The paper’s aim is to fill in knowledge gaps concerning the roots of the writer Helga M. Novak. She wrote her autobiographic novels (Die Eisheiligen 1979, Vogel federlos 1982, Im Schwanenhals 2013) according to a journalist’s working method, taking into consideration her own memories, conversations with the relatives of her adoptive parents, research in registry offices in Berlin and Dessau. Yet the feeling of having no proper roots and not really being welcome anywhere always seemed to be present in her life. The paper provides the outcome of an additional search for information and presents the verifiable information (documents of the German Literary Archives in Marbach, of the National Archives in Szczecin) against the background of the information depicted in the novels.