Born in
Bucharest to a
Transylvanian Saxon family of partly
Hungarian heritage, she completed secondary studies in her parents' native town of
Sibiu. As a former trader, her father was subjected to restrictions by
Communist authorities, and the Gabanyi family residence in the
Sub Arini neighbourghood of Sibiu was confiscated by the state. Gabanyi studied Philology and Political Science at the
University of Cluj, and later at the
Université d'Auvergne and the
University of Southern California. She received a
PhD in Philology from the
Helmut Schmidt University in
Hamburg. In 1963, Gabanyi and her family were allowed, as
ethnic Germans, to reunite with their relatives living in
West Germany (all of whom had retreated with the
Wehrmacht from
Northern Transylvania at the end of
World War II). According to Anneli Ute Gabanyi, this was made possible by the efforts of her father, who had profited from
détente in German-Romanian relations. They settled in
Munich, where she became an analyst for
Radio Free Europe (1969); she was head of the station's Romanian Research Section until 1987. She has frequently visited her native country after the Revolution, and is a regular contributor to
Sfera Politicii. ==Works==