Ruth Weiss

Ruth Weiss was born in Fürth in 1924 to Jewish parents and emigrated with her family to South Africa in 1936. She initially worked there as an economic journalist and later reported on the decolonization of Africa, particularly the liberation movements in southern Africa. Because of her opposition to apartheid, she was no longer permitted to live in South Africa from 1966. As a journalist, she worked in Zambia, Zimbabwe, England and Germany; from 1975 to 1978, she headed Deutsche Welle’s Africa desk in Cologne. She later wrote children’s and nonfiction books as well as novels, including *Meine Schwester Sara*. She received the German Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, in 2014, the PEN OVID Prize in 2022, and South Africa’s National Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in 2023.