Else Weil

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Else Weil (born June 19, 1889 in Berlin ; † September 11, 1942 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a German doctor and the first wife of Kurt Tucholsky . She was the godfather for the character of Claire in Tucholsky's Rheinsberg: A picture book for lovers . Because of her Jewish origins, she was murdered in Auschwitz.

Life

Stumbling block at the house, Bundesallee 79, in Berlin-Friedenau

Else Weil was the eldest of three children of the Jewish merchant Siegmund Weil and his wife Franziska nee. Herzfeld was born in her parents' house at Alte Jacobstrasse 88 in Berlin. After attending a secondary school for girls , she passed her Abitur as an external student at the Hohenzollern School in Berlin-Schöneberg in February 1910 .

education

On October 19 of the same year she enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin as a student of philosophy , but after a semester, in April 1911, changed the subject and studied medicine . She attended lectures with professors Hans Virchow , Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer and Theodor Brugsch and worked alongside her studies as a "deputy doctor" in the Charité Psychiatric Clinic . In 1914 she passed her physics course and passed her state examination in October 1916. On January 1, 1917, she began her practical year at the internal and surgical department of the Charlottenburg-Westend municipal hospital.

Professional background

On January 21, 1918, she submitted her dissertation A Contribution to the Casuistry of Induced Insanity with the predicate “good”. The doctoral thesis describes clinical cases of hallucinations and delusions, especially in women. Your doctoral supervisor was Karl Bonhoeffer .

As one of only 90 women in Germany, Else Weil received her license to practice medicine in 1918 and then worked as an assistant at the midwifery school in the Urban hospital .

After completing her doctorate , Else Weil became an assistant at Benno Hallauer's clinic for gynecological diseases and obstetrics at the Charité . She set up her first own practice on April 17, 1918 in her apartment at 79 Kaiserallee in Berlin-Friedenau. She was registered as a resident doctor with the Medical Association from October 1917 to April 1923, but, according to her own statements, had "not practiced any medical practice" since the beginning of 1923. Letters of recommendation indicate that she worked as a private secretary in various companies during this time. From November 1932 Else Weil worked again as a doctor. After the seizure of power of the Nazis but in 1933 she lost like all Jewish Kassenärzte their kassenärztliche approval ( Regulation on the admission of doctors to work at the health insurance ).

Else Weil published two articles in the Weltbühne in 1920 :

The article Friedmann's Tuberculosis Remedies was published in the Weltbühne on January 1st, 1920. She wrote: "If you put a tenth of the care with which you design your administrative buildings, competencies, authorities, offices and forms on the patient and his support, we would all be better."

The contribution Kassenärzte appeared in the Weltbühne on June 17, 1920. In it she defended the tuberculosis vaccination and spoke out in favor of its effectiveness. She criticized the medical laypersons who made the cure bad. She also dispelled the allegations that doctors were making money from long-term patient suffering.

Friendship and marriage with Kurt Tucholsky

Else Weil and Kurt Tucholsky spent a weekend together in Rheinsberg in August 1911 . This weekend was the template for the story Rheinsberg: A picture book for lovers , which was published in 1912 by Axel Junker Verlag. With his first work, Kurt Tucholsky established his literary breakthrough. As the character of Claire, Else Weil had a significant share in the success of the little story and kept the nickname until her death.

In 1915 Kurt Tucholsky was committed to military service in World War I , Else Weil continued her medical studies in Berlin. Kurt Tucholsky stayed in contact with her during this time, despite other relationships with women. In 1919 Kurt Tucholsky's volume of poems, Fromme Gesänge, appeared under the pseudonym Theobald Tiger . He dedicated the chapter on The Blue Flower to Else Weil. Nine years after the Rheinsberg excursion, the two married on May 3, 1920. The witnesses were Else Weil's father Siegmund and the publisher of the Weltbühne Siegfried Jacobsohn . In the same month Kurt Tucholsky moved into Else Weil's apartment. She now had the double name Weil-Tucholsky. The marriage did not last and was divorced on February 14, 1924.

Kurt Tucholsky on Else Weil

“Once Claire put her hand on the edge of the boat: that slightly bony hand, on the back of which pale blue veins tightened; but if one saw the long, carved fingers, one suspected it was an experienced hand. These fingertips knew about the effect of their tenderness, the joints played vigorously and confidently [...] The hand hung in the water and made a whirling streak. "

- Kurt Tucholsky : Rheinsberg. A picture book for lovers, 1912

"And next to me sat Claire, full of exuberance as we were back then, and her existence almost threw the whole band out of sync."

- Peter Panter : The gramophone. Simplicissimus, October 3, 1916

“Everyone's own - that's what the smartest woman I've met said. I was married to her a bit. "

- Kurt Tucholsky : Letter to Marierose Fuchs dated November 21, 1930

emigration

Death certificate for Else Weil, decision of the Charlottenburg District Court in 1961 (Photo: Kurt-Tucholsky-Literaturmuseum )

In March 1933, shortly after the seizure of power of the Nazis , Else Weil Tucholsky took back her maiden name - presumably to be named Tucholsky not be put at risk. In fact, Kurt Tucholsky's writings were "handed over to the flame" when the books were burned on May 10, 1933 in Berlin.

Since Else Weil had lost her medical license in 1933, she tried to find other work and was employed in an estate administration. Nevertheless, her financial situation forced her to move in with her grand cousin's family, Hilde Hoffnung. Else Weil supported the businessman Ludwig Hope as a stenographer and helped the family raise their son Gerhard.

After the fourth ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act of July 25, 1938, Jewish doctors were deprived of their license to practice medicine with effect from September 30, 1938. Few of the Jewish doctors who were still practicing received a “revocable permit” to work as “ medical practitioners ” exclusively for Jewish patients. Else Weil decided to emigrate. She came to France via the Netherlands and looked after the children of the Oppenheimer family, who were friends in Paris . During this time she met Friedrich Epstein again, a friend from Berlin, and from then on spent the time in exile with him. In September 1939 Else Weil and her boyfriend were interned as stateless persons by the French government for the first time, but released again after a short time. After the German invasion in May 1940, both fled to the unoccupied zone . Several brief internments in Camp de Gurs followed .

When Friedrich Epstein's niece, Annemarie Meier-Graefe , emigrated to the USA in the spring of 1941, she left her house La Banette in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer to her uncle and Else Weil . A few months later both were under police supervision (résidence forcée) in Salernes. According to letters, they planned to marry and flee to the United States . In the summer of 1942 Else Weil was interned as a stateless woman in Marseille , in Les Milles and in the Drancy assembly camp. Her name is listed as number 49 on the deportation list of the 30th transport from Drancy to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . After a 72-hour journey, the transport reached the extermination camp on September 11, 1942. Else Weil died either on the transport or in one of the gas chambers. December 31, 1945 was later set as the date of death.

Publications

  • Friedmann's tuberculosis agent in Die Weltbühne from January 1, 1920, p. 28ff.
  • Statutory health insurance physicians in Die Weltbühne from June 17, 1920, p. 724ff.

reception

Else Weil appears for the first time as the character of Claire in Tucholsky's much-read story Rheinsberg: A picture book for lovers . A secret summer weekend excursion by two young people aged around twenty in 1911 to the Brandenburg province is described. Breaking all conventions, Wolfgang (Kurt Tucholsky) and the medical student Claire create a refuge for private happiness in the Wilhelmine era. Revolutionary for this time, the author emphasized in an affirmative, impartial and therefore all the more clearly the unusually high level of education and the professional goals of his travel companion, thereby removing her from the common image of women of those years. At that time, Claire embodied a new image of women and appeared as a progressive and emancipated personality. Both Else Weil's biography and the national and international resonance of Tucholsky's summer story contributed to the equality of women. The name Claire Pimbusch borrowed Kurt Tucholsky on the novel In the land of plenty of Heinrich Mann . “Pimbusch” was the nickname Else Weils gave her by Tucholsky.

Tucholsky's first volume of poems appeared in October 1919 under the pseudonym “Theobald Tiger”. A year before their wedding, he dedicated a handwritten copy to his friend Else Weil - "the blue flower". The chapter of the same name contains romantic and erotic poems.

1998 appeared in the WDR a radio feature written by the head of the Rheinberger Kurt Tucholsky Literary Museum, Peter Böthig, entitled And Claire was real - Kurt Tucholsky unknown first wife Dr. med. Else Weil .

From November 13, 2010 to February 13, 2011, the Kurt Tucholsky Literature Museum in Rheinsberg dedicated an exhibition to Else Weil's biography on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Tucholsky's death, entitled Else Weil - Fragments of a German-Jewish Path .

On August 27, 2014 , a stumbling block was laid for Else Weil in Berlin-Friedenau , Bundesallee 79 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Else Weil  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth register StA Berlin VI No. 1383/1889 .
  2. ↑ Die Weltbühne from January 1, 1920, pp. 28ff.
  3. ↑ Die Weltbühne of June 17, 1920, p. 724 ff.
  4. ^ Letters to a Catholic ; Rowohlt 1970
personal data
SURNAME Because, Else
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and wife of Kurt Tucholsky
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1942
Place of death Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp