Christa Wolf's literary legacy is still highly controversial. This study re-examines some of
her major works in a new perspective. It leaves behind the polemic denouncement of her
character and the discrediting of her literature in light of her Stasi-collaboration exploring
instead the social and political environment in which Wolf grew up. It investigates the
continued effects of a suppressive childhood upbringing in Nazi Germany as well as the trauma
of World War II and the immediate post-war years. Examining the themes of memory and identity
as reappearing topics in Wolf's writing project reveals the impact these historical times had
on the author's life and on her poetology. A close reading of her novel Kindheitsmuster
published in 1976 situates the development of repression alienation and a fragmented sense of
self. The reappearance of these themes in Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud
written between 1993 and 2010 documents their ongoing relevance in her oeuvre. Revisiting
Wolf's texts with this focus offers an illumination of the persistence of behavioural patterns
connected to repression and the suppression of emotions and demonstrates Wolf's significance as
an author who was eager to document her experiences as authentically as possible.
