In 1931 Keun's first novel Gilgi, eine von uns was published and became a success. Encouraged by Alfred Döblin, she turned to writing. Although she had stage roles in Greifswald and Hamburg, these were only somewhat successful, and she decided to abandon her acting career in 1929. She worked as a stenotypist, but also attended acting school in Cologne from 1925 until 1927. There Keun attended a Lutheran girls' school, from which she graduated in 1921. She and her family, including her brother Gerd, born in 1910, lived in the city until 1913, when they moved to Cologne. Keun later recalled her mother as "stark hausfraulich eingestellt, auf eine sehr schauerliche Weise" (quite domestically inclined, in a very horrible way). Her father was an agent for a company that imported petrol, her mother a housewife. Irmgard Keun was born on 6 February 1905 in Charlottenburg (at the time an independent town, now part of Berlin) to Eduard and Elsa Keun. Her books were banned by Nazi authorities but gained recognition during the final years of her life. After her attempts at acting ended at the age of 16, Keun began working as a writer after years of working in Hamburg and Greifswald. Noted for her portrayals of the life of women, she is described as "often reduced to the bold sexuality of her writing, a significant author of the late Weimar period and die Neue Sachlichkeit." She was born into an affluent family and was given the autonomy to explore her passions. Irmgard Keun ( 6 February 1905 – ) was a German novelist.
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