My wife, Bruni de la Motte, who has died aged 74, freelanced as a journalist, writing for various German language newspapers, reporting on the social and political scene in the UK. Her work included in-depth interviews with Tony Benn and with Harold Pinter for the newspaper Neues Deutschland. She also had articles published in the Guardian and in the New Statesman about her experiences living and working in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Born in a small village in Thuringia, in the GDR, Bruni (Brunhild) was the daughter of Eva (formerly De la Motte), a secretary, and Ernst de la Motte, an agricultural engineer. Her parents shared the same surname though having been step-siblings.
