In her autobiographical novel Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany Ika Hügel-Marshall writes about her life as a daughter of a Black officer from the United States army and a white German woman after World War II. As an “occupation baby,” born in a small German town in 1947, Ika has a double stigma: Not only has she been born out of wedlock, but she is also Black. Despite the institutionalized racism, Ika overcomes these hurdles, and finally, when she is in her forties, she locates her father with the help of a good friend and discovers that she has a loving family in Chicago.

The English translation of the book was originally published by Continuum International Publishers in 2001 and was republished in a new annotated edition by Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. in July 2008.

Ika Hügel-Marshall has a degree in social pedagogics and she is a lecturer.
web site: www.ika-huegel-marshall.de