country_of_citizenship brigitte reimann
Burg bei Magdeburg is a town of about 23 , 900 inhabitants on the Elbe  Havel Canal in northeastern ___MASK13___ , northeast of Magdeburg . It is the capital of the Jerichower Land district in the state of Saxony - Anhalt . The town is known for its mediaeval churches and towers . Due to the numerous towers and steeples Burg also carries the sobriquet " City of Towers ". Like other German towns and cities , Burg shows its connection to the Roland saga with a statue , which was restored in 1999 . Jerichower Land is a district (" Kreis ") in the north - east of Saxony - Anhalt , ___MASK13___ . Its neighbouring administrative units are ( clockwise from the south ): the districts of Anhalt - Bitterfeld , Salzlandkreis , the city of Magdeburg , the districts of Börde , Stendal , Havelland and Potsdam - Mittelmark in Brandenburg . ___MASK13___ , officially the Federal Republic of ___MASK13___ , is a federal parliamentary republic in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , ___MASK13___ is the most populous member state of the European Union . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . ___MASK13___ ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include ___MASK24___ , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . East Berlin existed between 1949 and 1990 and consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin established in 1945 . The ___MASK19___ , British , and French sectors became West Berlin , strongly associated with West Germany , while East Berlin was the " de facto " capital of ___MASK51___ . From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989 , East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall . West Berlin was a city that existed in the period between the end of the Berlin Blockade on 12 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and ___MASK51___ . It was east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from ___MASK46___ by narrow rail and highway corridors . It consisted of the ___MASK19___ , British , and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and shared economic , political , legal , and sporting systems with ___MASK46___ , but was not " de jure " part of it . It had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies . East Berlin , " de jure " occupied and administered by the Soviet Union , was the " de facto " capital of ___MASK51___ . The Berlin Wall , built in 1961 , physically divided East and West Berlin until it fell in 1989 . Brigitte Reimann ( born 21 July 1933 , Burg bei Magdeburg , d . 22 February 1973 , East Berlin ) was a German writer who is best known for her posthumously published novel Franziska Linkerhand . The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked federal state of ___MASK13___ , bordering the federal states of Brandenburg , Saxony Anhalt , Thuringia , and Bavaria , as well as the countries of ___MASK84___ ( Lower Silesian and Lubusz Voivodeships ) and the ___MASK9___ ( Karlovy Vary , Liberec and Ústí nad Labem Regions ). Its capital is Dresden , and its largest city is Leipzig . Magdeburg ( Low Saxon : " Meideborg ") is the capital city and the second largest city of the state of Saxony - Anhalt , ___MASK13___ . Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe . The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 . Constructed by the German Democratic Republic ( GDR , ___MASK51___ ), starting on 13 August 1961 , the Wall completely cut off ( by land ) West Berlin from surrounding ___MASK51___ and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989 . Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992 . The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls , which circumscribed a wide area ( later known as the " death strip ") that contained anti - vehicle trenches , " fakir beds " and other defenses . The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the " will of the people " in building a socialist state in ___MASK51___ . In practice , the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked ___MASK51___ and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post - World War II period . ___MASK51___ , formally the German Democratic Republic or GDR , was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period . From 1949 to 1990 , it administered the region of ___MASK13___ that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II  the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement , bounded on the east by the Oder  Neisse line . The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin , but did not include it ; as a result , West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR . The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone , while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones . ___MASK51___ was a satellite state of the ___MASK52___ . Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948 , and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949 . Soviet forces , however , remained in the country throughout the Cold War . Until 1989 , the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party ( SED ), though other parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation , the National Front of Democratic ___MASK13___ . Saxony - Anhalt is a landlocked federal state of ___MASK13___ surrounded by the federal states of Lower Saxony , Brandenburg , Saxony and Thuringia . Berlin is the capital and the largest city of ___MASK13___ as well as one of its constituent 16 states . With a population of approximately 3 . 5 million people , Berlin is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union . Located in northeastern ___MASK13___ on the banks of rivers Spree and Havel , it is the centre of the Berlin - Brandenburg Metropolitan Region , which has about 6 million residents from more than 180 nations . Due to its location in the European Plain , Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate . Around one - third of the city ' s area is composed of forests , parks , gardens , rivers and lakes . The Elbe  Havel Canal is a 56 - kilometre - long waterway in ___MASK13___ . It links Magdeburg , on the River Elbe , with Brandenburg on the River Havel . ___MASK46___ is the common English name for the Federal Republic of ___MASK13___ or FRG ( or " RFA ") in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 . During this Cold War era , NATO - aligned ___MASK46___ and Warsaw Pact - aligned ___MASK51___ were divided by the Inner German border . After 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from ___MASK51___ by the Berlin Wall . This situation ended when ___MASK51___ was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of ___MASK13___ along with the reunified city - state of Berlin . With the reunification of West and ___MASK51___ , the Federal Republic of ___MASK13___ , enlarged now to sixteen states , became known simply as " ___MASK13___ ". This period is also referred to as the Bonn Republic (" Bonner Republik ") by historians , alluding to the interwar ___MASK70___ and the post - reunification Berlin Republic .