Brigitte Zimmermann was born in Sagan, a small town to the west of Breslau in Silesia. During the &lt;a href="Flight%20and%20expulsion%20of%20Germans%20from%20Poland%20during%20and%20after%20World%20War%20II"&gt;ethnic cleansing of 1944/45&lt;/a&gt; the family were relocated, ending up in Weimar, where she grew up. This meant that from the age of 6 she lived what was administered as in the Soviet occupation zone until she was approximately 10½ at which point, in October 1949, the entire zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Her father worked as a decorator: her mother worked in sales. By the time her mother crossed over to the German Federal Republic (West Germany), the government of East Germany, under pressure from an acute labour shortage resulting from the slaughter of war and massive emigration, was taking active steps to discourage "Republikflucht", and as a result of her mother's "desertion" Brigitte Zimmermann was blocked in her progress from her school final exams "("Abitur")" to university-level studies. Instead, between 1958 and 1961 she worked as a carpenter at the VEB .