My wife, Bruni de la Motte, who has died aged 74, freelanced as a journalist, writing for various German language newspapers, reporting on the social and political scene in the UK. Her work included in-depth interviews with Tony Benn and with Harold Pinter for the newspaper Neues Deutschland. She also had articles published in the Guardian and in the New Statesman about her experiences living and working in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Born in a small village in Thuringia, in the GDR, Bruni (Brunhild) was the daughter of Eva (formerly De la Motte), a secretary, and Ernst de la Motte, an agricultural engineer. Her parents shared the same surname though having been step-siblings.
Bruni went to school in Nordhausen and later studied English at Potsdam University. A bright and passionate student, she was taught by my mother, Marguerite Morgan, and mentored by the inspiring Prof Leonard Goldstein, a refugee from McCarthyism in the US.
After completing her doctorate in 1974, she taught English literature at Potsdam. She published papers in a number of academic publications, including on feminism as reflected through female writers in 19th-century English literature.
She and I met in 1985, when we were at a Shakespeare conference in Weimar; we got to know each other better when she came to Britain to carry out some research in the British Library. We married in 1989, just before the fall of the GDR. She and her two young sons, from her previous marriage to Colin Sherman, a fellow lecturer at Potsdam, came to live with me in London.
She gave a number of interviews about her experience of growing up in the GDR and contributed to podcasts. She and I co-authored a book on the history of the GDR (Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It), which is still popular among students of the period.
In 1990, Bruni took the decision to change career and began working for Unison, the public service trade union. There, she progressed rapidly from secretary to become a national officer, working in the union’s department responsible for the education sector.
After retiring from Unison in 2016, she became a trustee of the Marx Memorial Library and played an active role there. She also became an avid gardener, ensuring that there was always something in bloom at all times of the year, reflecting her love of flowers and bright colours. She was known for her vibrant clothing, always dressing in bright colours and chunky jewellery.
Bruni is survived by me, her two sons, Robin and David, two grandchildren, Melissa and Denis, by her three siblings, Uwe, Regine and Hiltrud, and her father.
