Beatrix Kempf

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beatrix Maria Johanna Kempf b. Hönigschmid ( November 1, 1908 in Fiume - August 19, 2009 in Vienna ) was an Austrian editor , peace activist and Bertha von Suttner's biographer .

life and work

Kempf came from an old Austrian family, her parents were Franz Hönigschmid, a colonel of the Imperial and Royal General Staff, and Bice Hönigschmid, nee. Grossich. Her father worked as the director of Georgschicht AG in Aussig an der Elbe, today Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, and was a member of the Supervisory Board of Unilever in Vienna. Beatrix Hönigschmid attended elementary school in Vienna and grammar school in Bohemia and Italy. She then studied at the German University in Prague and Paris. In 1932 she was awarded a Dr. phil. doctorate and she then completed a traineeship at the Oldenbourg publishing house . In 1937 she married the engineer Viktor Kempf. He was the chief engineer of the Poldi hut . The couple had a daughter, Beatrice. As a member of the German-speaking minority in Czechoslovakia, the family was expelled in the mid-1940s. Her husband died in Prague in 1945, and Beatrix Kempf fled to Austria with her daughter.

From 1946 to 1973 she worked in the Federal Press Service of the Federal Chancellery as an editor, later as editor-in-chief. In 1949 she became a member of the Association of Women Academics in Austria. From 1955 she worked in the cultural department of the Federal Chancellery. In 1959, Kempf became a member and later a functionary of the international organization Zonta , which set itself the goal of improving the status of women in legal, economic, health and professional matters worldwide. At the same time, she campaigned for the peace movement and peace research throughout her life . In 1964 her book, first book on Bertha von Suttner, was published . It was subtitled The Life of a Great Woman. Writer, politician, journalist , presented the first biography of Suttner. In the course of researching this book, Kempf dealt with the origins and history of the peace movement.

With the resolution of the Federal President of December 23, 1968, she was awarded the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria . In 1973 she retired and in the same year she took over the editing of the journal Wiener Blätter zur Friedensforschung . Furthermore, she was an adviser at the University Center for Peace Research , which works on the fundamentals of peaceful coexistence between peoples, and she was, also in 1973, one of the founding members of the Austrian-Italian Society and remained a member of the board of the society for many years. In 1995 she was made an honorary member of the Vienna Zonta Section. At the International Bertha von Suttner Symposium 2005 in Eggenburg under the title Peace - Progress - Women , Kempf gave a lecture on "The Person Bertha von Suttner". In 2008 she was awarded the Federal Decoration of Honor by Ursula Plassnik .

Kempf died on August 19, 2009 at the age of 100 and was buried on September 2, 2009 at the Hietzing cemetery.

Fonts

  • Bertha von Suttner. The life picture of a great woman. Writer, politician, journalist. Austrian Federal Publishing House Vienna 1964.
  • Bertha von Suttner. A woman fights for peace. Herder Library, Freiburg 1979.
  • Bertha von Suttner. Writer - politician - pacifist. Heyne, Munich 1987.
  • Bertha von Suttner and the “bourgeois” peace movement. In: Peace - Progress - Women. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bertha von Suttner at Harmannsdorf Castle. Lit, Vienna 2007, p. 45 ff.

Awards and commemorations

In 1968, Kempf was awarded the Golden Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria . In 2016 the Beatrix-Kempf-Gasse in Vienna- Aspern was named after her.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Margulies: Culture Committee of May 10, 2016. In: martins linksblog. May 20, 2016, accessed July 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ La voce del popolo. Retrieved July 6, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Aussiger Bote 1957. Retrieved July 6, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Beatrix Kempf: Bertha von Suttner. A woman fights for peace, Herder 1979, p. 4, ISBN 978-3-451-07697-8
  5. ↑ Remembering Dr. Beatrix Kempf. In: The Zontian. February 2010, p. 24 , accessed April 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Austria Forum | https://austria-forum.org : Minimizing Conflicts (University Center for Peace Research). Retrieved July 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Search for the deceased: Beatrix Kempf. Vienna Cemeteries, accessed on April 18, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Kempf, Beatrix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hönigschmid, Beatrix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian editor, peace activist and biographer Bertha von Suttners
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Fiume
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 2009
Place of death Vienna