Wolf, Christa (1929- ), German novelist and essayist, known for her novels about Germany during World War II (1939-1945). Born Christa Ihlenfeld in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland), she studied at the Universities of Leipzig and Jena from 1949 to 1953. In 1951 she married writer Gerhard Wolf. After graduating she worked as a publisher's reader and an editor until 1962, when she became a full-time writer. Her first successful novel, Der geteilte Himmel (1963; translated as The Divided Heaven, 1965), describes a relationship between a man who leaves the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany, a