Ossowski was born Jolanthe von Brandenstein in Röhrsdorf in Posen-West Prussia, the daughter of Lothar , an estate owner, and writer Ruth von Ostau. Her elder sister was who became an actress. At the end of World War II, she fled to Bad Salzungen in Thuringia, then moved to Hesse. She finally settled in Upper Swabia. Ossowski worked at various jobs, including sales clerk, factory worker and photo lab assistant. Beginning in the 1950s, she also wrote short stories under her pen name. On a visit to the GDR in 1953, she received a commission from the state-owned film studioDEFA for a screenplay. She wrote the script for Zwei Mütter, which was directed by Frank Beyer and premiered on 28 June 1957. A year later, she published the novel , which was later made into a film. Ossowski moved with her family to Mannheim in 1958. In 1968, she published a novel in West Germanyfor the first time. She also published stories, non-fiction books, screen plays and stage plays. She was a member of the PEN Centre Germany. In the 1970s, she was a social worker, caring for young people in prison and installing communal housing for young people released from prison. She visited her birthplace in 1974, and wrote a trilogy of novels about the war and post-war periods there, showing empathy for the Polish view. Her 1977 Die große Flatter, a novel for young adults, deals with two young homeless people in Mannhein. It was filmed as an award-winning three-part television play, with Richy Müller, presented in 1979. Ossowski lived in Berlin from 1980 until her death on 4 February 2019. Among her seven children is the theologian.
Awards
Ossowski was awarded the Hermann Kesten Medal of the PEN Centre in 2006. In 2014, she received the Andreas Gryphius Prize. She was awarded the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the.
Work
Ossowski's work often deals with people on the edge of society, and is entertaining but also educational. Her novel is part of the school canon. Ossowki's works are held by the German National Library, including:
Novels and stories
', 1958, novel, 1980
Wer fürchtet sich vorm schwarzen Mann?, novel, 1968
Mannheimer Erzählungen, 1974, story collection
Weichselkirschen, novel, 1976, part 1 of the Schlesien-Trilogie
Die große Flatter, novel, 1977, 1979)
Blumen für Magritte, stories, 1978
Liebe ist kein Argument, novel, 1981
', novel, 1982
Littel fasst einen Entschluss und andere Erzählungen, stories, 1983
Neben der Zärtlichkeit, novel, 1984
Wolfsbeeren, Roman, 1987, part 2 of the Schlesien-Trilogie
Das Zinnparadies, 1988
Weckels Angst, 1991
Holunderzeit, novel, Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1991, part 3 of the Schlesien-Trilogie
