German translator from Danish Gisela Perlet was born in 1942 and died in December 2010. She grew up in the village of Gutenswegen close to Magdeburg and studied German literature and Scandinavian studies at Greifswald University. From 1966 to 1979 she was working as an editor for Hinstorff-Verlag in Rostock. Her first translations appeared at the end of the 1960s. After political differences with authorities about a planned translation of Kierkegaard she was dismissed and continued to work as a freelance translator and editor. Suffering from cancer, Perlet lived the last years of her life in Rostock.

Gisela Perlet's translations of Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard are most renowned.

Gisela Perlet received following awards: 1998 the Danish Dannebrogorden, 2001 the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal cross of merit), 2002 Johann Heinrich Voß Prize for translation, 2004 the Danish Arts Council's translation prize.