Elisabeth Darapsky

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Juliane Elisabeth Alice Darapsky (born November 3, 1913 in Mainz ; † July 30, 1998 there ) was a German historian , archivist , librarian and opponent of the National Socialist regime. The main focus of her academic activity was the era of the electoral Mainz .

Life

Elisabeth Darapsky was born in 1913 as the daughter of the engineer and city fire director Anton Basilius Darapsky and his wife Klara Anna, nee. Müller was born in Mainz and grew up there in a strict Catholic family. Her father, the founder of the Mainz professional fire brigade , died in March 1918. Therefore, she orientated herself at an early age on her brother Emil Heinrich Darapsky, who was seven years her senior . After attending elementary school , she attended the Ursuline Sister School in Haselünne in Emsland up to secondary school , after which she moved to the Institute of the English Misses in Mainz, where she passed her Abitur in 1933. She then studied history , German and musicology at the universities in Frankfurt, Giessen and Cologne. At the University of Cologne she did her doctorate in October 1939 under Professor Gerhard Kallen with a dissertation on the topic "The rural land ownership of the Cologne Monastery of St. Gereon until 1500". In April 1939 she took up a position as a research assistant in the Mainz city archive .

Darapsky died in 1998. Her grave is on the Mainzer Main Cemetery in Field 64, Row 14, No. 12–23. In this family grave is also the urn with her brother Emil's ashes.

Conflict with the National Socialist regime

Like her brother Emil, Elisabeth Darapsky was influenced by her strict Catholic parents at an early age. Because of her faith, she soon came into conflict with the National Socialist ideology. She never joined a National Socialist organization. She was denied her upcoming civil service in 1942 because of her critical attitude towards the regime and that of her entire family. The district leader of the NSDAP in Mainz criticized her strong ecclesiastical ties and attested that she was “in no way firmly established in terms of ideology”.

In an exchange of letters with her brother, who was discharged from the Wehrmacht for health reasons , both siblings exchanged open and critical exchanges about the political situation and the war. Her brother, a teacher in Wöllstein in the Rhine-Hesse region and known for his critical attitude towards National Socialism and the war, was finally denounced by colleagues in autumn 1943. In subsequent house searches of him, Elisabeth Darapsky and her mother's house, incriminating material was found. Both were arrested by the Gestapo in autumn 1943 . After three months in custody in the Mainz police prison, she was transferred to Berlin. In January 1944 the trial of the Darapsky siblings began there before the People's Court . Both were charged with undermining military strength . Elisabeth's brother Emil was sentenced to death on September 6, 1944 and hanged on October 30, 1944. Elisabeth Darapsky was sentenced to five years in prison and loss of honor in the same process . She spent her prison sentence until her liberation by the Allies on May 7, 1945 in the correctional facilities in Berlin-Moabit and in Waldheim near Saxony.

Her superior Richard Dertsch , both an avowed National Socialist and a practicing Catholic and since 1934 head of the city library and the city archives for political reasons and successor to the released Aloys Ruppel , wrote her a letter of consolation in prison. Thereupon Dertsch himself was arrested for several weeks, finally relieved of his office and temporarily replaced by Aloys Ruppel. After the war , Dertsch and Darapsky did research together and were supposed to publish the Regesta of St. Ignaz , one of the most important scientific works by Elisabeth Darapsky.

Activity after the Second World War

Elisabeth Darapsky returned to Mainz in June 1945 and resumed her position as a research assistant in the Mainz City Archives, from which she was dismissed in August 1944. In 1948, with retroactive effect from July 1, 1945, she was made civil servants and appointed archivist . She worked at the Mainz City Archives until she retired in 1976.

In the first post-war period, Elisabeth Darapsky's work as an archivist in the Mainz City Archives consisted of organizing and viewing the collections and returning archival material that had been relocated during the war . She later looked after the older holdings of the archive, the notarial archive, the collection of pictures and plans for the city of Mainz as well as their documents and the manuscripts of the Mainz city library .

Scientific activity

For Elisabeth Darapsky, the focus of her scientific work, which she continued after her retirement until her death in 1998, was the time of the Electoral Mainz. Much of the research in this area flowed into the 1995 complete work “Mainz, the electoral residence city 1648–1792”. In 1974, together with Richard Dertsch, she published the regesta of the "Documents of the Parish Archives of St. Ignaz in Mainz". In 1980 she completed and published her work on the "History of the Welschnonnen in Mainz". Your contributions, if not in the form of a separate book or as part of the book series “ Contributions to the History of the City of Mainz ”, have been published in various journals such as “Das Neue Mainz” or the “ Mainzer Zeitschrift ”. Elisabeth Darapsky was also very interested in urban and transport planning in the city of Mainz, which was badly damaged during the war.

Due to its lively scientific publication activity, the catalog of the service library of the Mainz City Archive has a total of 55 titles. Your estate, both official (Zg. 1979/40) and private (Zg. 2003/6) nature, was taken over by the Mainz City Archives in 1979 and 2003. For the majority of the estate, which can be viewed there, this resulted in a volume of approx. 1.45 running meters .

Works (selection)

  • Documents from the parish archive of St. Ignaz in Mainz. Regesten by Elisabeth Darapsky and Richard Dertsch (= contributions to the history of the city of Mainz, Volume 22, 2 = excerpt from Volume 22). Mainz 1974, ISBN 3924708134
  • Elisabeth Darapsky: History of the Welschnonnen in Mainz. The regulated women choirs of St. Augustine and their schools (= contributions to the history of the city of Mainz, Volume 25). Mainz 1980
  • Elisabeth Darapsky: Mainz, the electoral residence city 1648–1792. (= History of the city of Mainz ). Regio Verlag Jacobi, Mainz 1995.

literature

  • Hedwig Brüchert (editor): Rhineland-Palatinate women. Women in politics, society, economy and culture in the early years of Rhineland-Palatinate. (= Publications of the Parliament's Commission for the History of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate Volume 23). Mainz 2001, pp. 78-80.
  • Friedrich Schütz : In the service of the city's history. On the death of Dr. Elisabeth Darapsky. In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, economy, history Volume 18, Issue 4, 1998, p. 98.
  • Susanne Speth: "I couldn't believe it for a long time": a tribute to the city archivist Dr. Elisabeth Darapsky, who would have turned 100 this year. In: Mainz. Quarterly magazines for culture, politics, economy, history Volume 33, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 118–121.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Darapsky, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Darapsky, Juliane Elisabeth Alice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian, archivist, convicted of undermining military strength
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1998
Place of death Mainz