Kirsch co-signed a landmark open letter protesting the GDR's expatriation of singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, becoming a leading dissident voice.
On 16 November 1976 (protest published shortly after the expatriation decree of 16 November), Sarah Kirsch was among the first and most prominent signatories of an open letter condemning the East German government's decision to strip dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann of his citizenship while he was on a concert tour in West Germany.
The letter, signed by twelve leading GDR writers and intellectuals including Christa Wolf, Stefan Heym, and Volker Braun, was a rare and courageous act of open dissent against the socialist state's cultural repression. It marked a pivotal moment in GDR cultural history, exposing deep fractures between the state and its intelligentsia.
For Kirsch, this act had severe personal consequences: she faced increasing surveillance, professional isolation, and pressure from the Stasi (East German secret police) and the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED). The backlash contributed directly to her decision to leave East Germany permanently in 1977.
This episode cemented Kirsch's reputation not only as a gifted lyric poet but as a writer unwilling to remain silent in the face of state censorship and repression, aligning her with a broader tradition of literary dissidence in Soviet-bloc countries during the Cold War.