Marie von Rokitansky

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Marie von Rokitansky-Weis, Edle von Ostborn ( January 13, 1848 in Vienna - November 6, 1924 in Graz ) was an Austrian cookbook author and author of the popular cookbook Die Österreichische Küche , first published in 1897.

life and work

Marie von Rokitansky was born as the daughter of the Oberfinanzrat Joseph Weis, Knight von Ostborn (1806-1904) and Karoline Weis von Osborn. Her father was an amateur violinist. In 1869 she married her cousin Prokop Lothar Freiherr von Rokitansky (1843–1928), a doctor. Her father-in-law Carl von Rokitansky (1804–1878) was a well-known pathologist, politician and philosopher. Her mother-in-law and at the same time aunt, her father's sister, Marie Anna (1806–1888), had appeared as a singer. Two of her husband's brothers ( Hans and Viktor ) became opera singers, and another brother-in-law was also a doctor. Her husband, a staunch German national, was appointed full professor of internal medicine at the Innsbruck Medical Clinic in 1877 .

The marriage remained childless. In Innsbruck Marie von Rokitansky published her cookbook in 1897 and was also active in charities. She wanted to make herself useful with the book by trying “to be a reliable advisor to young housewives who care about good, tasty, not too artificial preparation of the food”. The cookbook is proof of the author's sophistication as well as her self-confidence, as she presented the Rokitansky cake she created , an exotic layer cake with lots of cream foam and vanilla, strawberry, apricot and raspberry salad, a layer of dates and finely chopped pistachios on top . The book is extensive and detailed, it comprises 613 pages including the detailed index, which alone takes up 46 pages. The author gives an overview of the common terms and the cookware to be used, shows herbs and sponges on two tables , on two other fish, and describes the culinary art from soups to frozen foods, whereby the boundaries between home-style and rural cuisine are not always strictly drawn were. The book, which contains 550 recipes and also conversion tables from Seidel , Lot and Pfund to metric dimensions, was awarded in Vienna and Paris and repeatedly reprinted, with at least 14 editions until 1929, most recently in a reprint in 2011. It is dedicated to her mother.

On October 22nd, 1898, she founded a women's association for day nurseries in Innsbruck and was elected its president, after having already collected a considerable fortune for the association in advance. The occasion for the charity work was the 50th anniversary of the emperor's reign. The association bought the so-called Spielmannschlössl in the Höttinger Au in order to open a crèche there, to enable the mothers to work and to save the children from "neglect". Children between the ages of two weeks and three years were accepted. The crib was opened on December 12th, 1898. In the presence of local celebrities from society, politics, business and science, the baroness emphasized that “through the most careful care and the best nutrition, the foundation should be laid for that firm and unshakable health that she in the later days makes it suitable to survive victoriously the often hard and arduous struggle for existence. "

In the post-war period, the association ran into financial difficulties and had to hand over the house and crèche to the city of Innsbruck.

Quote

“Every girl should be familiar with the knowledge necessary to run a household - be it poor or rich, if she is married into small or large circumstances. They include the art of cooking, the skill in all female handicrafts, the ability to keep domestic order and cleanliness and, last but not least, the right thrift. Without this knowledge, the certainly beautiful and rewarding job of housewife, which has such a great influence on the comfort of the whole family, cannot be fulfilled. "

- Marie von Rokitansky : Quoted here from the website Backe Backe Kuchen

Book publication

Title page (1913)
  • The Austrian cuisine. A collection of self-tried recipes for the simplest and the finest household, together with instructions for learning the art of cooking , Innsbruck: Edlinger [u. a.] 1897

Awards

  • 1899 Large medal with the gold palm, culinary art exhibition in Vienna
  • 1900 gold medal, culinary arts exhibition in Paris

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans von Stratowa: Wiener genealogical Paperback . Vienna, 1926, p. 402.
  2. ↑ a b Austrian Music Lexicon : Weis-Ostborn (own Weis Ritter von Ostborn), family , accessed on October 10, 2017
  3. ↑ The fifth edition (17th – 20th thousand) from 1908 (“Much increased and improved”), on which the 2011 reprint is based, was used here.
  4. ↑ Andrea Grötschnig: From "Faulen Hans", who ends up at the stake , accessed on October 10, 2017
  5. ↑ Thomas Kahler: Meal! , November 10, 2015, accessed October 10, 2010
  6. ↑ Horst Schreiber : Restitution of Dignity: Childhood and Violence in Homes of the City of Innsbruck , StudienVerlag 2015

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rokitansky, Marie von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rokitansky-Weis, Edle von Ostborn, Marie von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian cookbook author
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austrian Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1924
Place of death Graz , Austria