Elga Kern

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Elga Kern at the age of 43
Elga Kern: Leading Women in Europe (1928)
Book ban in 1934, issued by Hans Volk

Elga Gundela Kern (* August 13, 1888 in Munich as Elga Gundela Hochstätter ; died July 30, 1957 in Heidelberg ) was a German publicist.

Life

Elga Kern studied biology and received her doctorate. She worked as a publicist and translator for Polish and French literature. Little is known about their life. Kern stayed in Poland in 1930 and learned the Polish language . She probably emigrated from Germany in 1933 after the handover of power to the National Socialists. In Poland after 1933 she was involved in the publication of several books, including two German school primers , and translations. After the Second World War , it was last published in Munich in 1955.

A 17-year-old was murdered while in Poland. The main suspect was her father's partner Rita Gorgonova. The case was widely discussed in the media, and Kern claimed that the first trial was flawed. In the appeal, Gorgonova was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In 1927, Kern published a book with 35 minutes of conversations with prostitutes at Ernst Reinhardt Verlag . This was based on talks with around one hundred prostitutes in the state of Baden , which had been held before the Reich Law on Combating Venereal Diseases came into force on October 1, 1927. Kern was living in Heidelberg at the time. She recorded these conversations and reproduced them in indirect speech. In the respective interview , she also carried out an intelligence test. She has also compared the statements with the police records and obtained information from the parish offices of the places of origin. She added a finding from her personal impression of the women to every interview. Further details, referred to by Kern as " catamneses ", were to be edited and published two years later, but this did not happen. The records were apparently later lost.

Also in 1928 a book was published with autobiographical sketches by sixteen women in a prominent position in society who had been asked by Kern to contribute to the book project. The book then appeared in three further editions until 1932. A second volume followed in 1930 with a further 25 contributions; Both volumes were advertised by the publisher as Forty Leading Women in Europe .

Kern's books were banned in National Socialist Germany in 1934; the autobiography volumes probably because they also contained contributions by both Jewish women and communists.

Shortly after the Second World War, Kern lived in Brussels . She was visiting Poland and its Recovered Territories at that time .

In 1955, Kern published a book with the personal testimonies of contemporary intellectuals at Verlag Reinhardt. Of the 35 self-statements of the prostitutes recorded in 1928, 18 were selected and published by the publicist Hanne Kulessa in 1985 . To mark its centenary in 1999, the Emil Reinhardt publishing house published a new edition of the Leading Women of Europe , which now contained 20 of the 41 autobiographical articles.

Fonts

  • Towards the bank. 12 small woodcuts from the Untersee. Hand prints v. Hugo Boeschenstein . Accompanying word (4 pages) by Elga Kern. Self-published by the artist, Wangen 1926.
  • Leading women in Europe, in sixteen self-descriptions , edited and introduced by Elga Kern. Reinhardt, Munich 1928, OCLC 311131495 .
  • Leading women in Europe, new series, in twenty-five self-descriptions, edited and introduced by Elga Kern. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 1930, OCLC 25837884 .
    • Leading women in Europe: Elga Kern's standard work from 1928/1930 . Newly edited and edited by Bettina Conrad and Ulrike Leuschner. With a foreword by Edda Ziegler. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1999, ISBN 3-497-01480-X .
  • How they came to this: 35 fragments of life from brotheled girls after examinations in brothels in Baden . With facsimiles of protocols. E. Reinhardt, Munich 1928.
    • How they got there: fragments of life from brotheled girls . Edited and with an afterword by Hanne Kulessa. Luchterhand Collection, Neuwied 1985, ISBN 3-472-61585-0 .
  • From old and new Poland: With 16 reproductions based on originals by Polish artists . Rascher, Zurich / Stuttgart 1931.
  • Niemcy wczorajsze i dzisiejsze . Towarzystwo Wydawnictw Perjodycznych, Warsaw 1934 [Germany yesterday and today].
  • Maria Dąbrowska : Nights and Days . Translation of Elga Kern. 1935 [only available from Kürschner].
  • Marja Piłsudska: matka Marszałka: wizerunek życia . Nakładem Głównej Księgarni Wojskowej, Warsaw 1935.
  • Ola and Arno: Primer for the first grade in elementary school: German and Polish . With Rudolf Kern, H Kraft, Ludwik Ryszard Bandura, Roman Wyspiański. Biblioteka Polska, Warsaw 1937.
  • (Ed.): Signposts in the turning point of time. Testimonials from Bertrand Russell… [u. a.] Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1955.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elga Kern: Letter to Jeanne Rij-Rousseau , Mannheim, January 5, 1931.
  2. ↑ Cezary Łazarewicz: Koronkowa robota. Sprawa Gorgonowej . Czarne, 2018, ISBN 978-83-8049-643-9 .
  3. ^ Kurier Szczeciński , October 10, 1948
personal data
SURNAME Kern, Elga
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kern, Elga Gundela (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1957
Place of death Heidelberg