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Born in 1943 in St. Albans, near London, where her parents were refugees. Her Polish mother was Jewish and had to escape when Nazi-Germany occupied Austria in 1938. After ten years in exile her parents returned to Austria with their two children. Erica Fischer grew up in Vienna, studied translating and interpreting at the University of Vienna, and, in 1972, became one of the founding members of the Austrian women's movement. Besides working as a journalist she was for many years involved in the feminist movement as an activist, organiser, writer and public speaker. She has written more than twenty books, most of which discussing women's issues. In 1994, she published Aimée & Jaguar, a non-fiction based on the true love story of two women, one - Felice Schragenheim - Jewish and in hiding in Berlin, one - Elisabeth Wust - originally in favour of the Nazi-regime. The book was translated into 20 languages, and, in 1999, a movie was made based on the story. The translation into Polish by Katarzyna Weintraub was published by Wydawnictwo Czarne in 2008. Two other books by Erica Fischer were translated into Polish: Droga do nieba (2009) and Wybrałam wolność (2010), the story of an Afghan family. In 2022, she published her autobiography Spät lieben gelernt. Mein Leben, and in 2023 Die Welt vor Suzie Wong, a non-fiction telling the complicated story of an Austro-Korean family. In 1988, Erica Fischer moved to Germany and has been living in Berlin for nearly thirty years. She is married to the Italian Massimo Cortini.

pic. from the private archive