Elisabeth Jastrow

Elisabeth Jastrow (born October 7, 1890 in Berlin , † September 1981 in Greensboro ) was a German-American classical archaeologist .

Elisabeth Jastrow came from a family of assimilated German Jews. Her father was the historian and social scientist Ignaz Jastrow . Through her father she grew up in a world full of scholars and artists, while her sister Lotte Beate later combined education and horticulture. She began to be interested in the ancient world at an early age and in 1909 began to study classical philology , archeology, art history and philosophy at the Berlin University . Her most important teacher was Georg Loeschcke , after whose death in 1915 she moved to Heidelberg University . There Friedrich von Duhn became her doctoral supervisor . The title of the dissertation from 1916 was clay altars from the western Greek colonies . At that time she also joined a group of archaeologists, whose center was Margarete Bieber . In addition, Gerhart Rodenwaldt , Valentin Müller , Erwin Panofsky , Walther Amelung , and Bernhard Schweitzer were among them. From 1916 to 1922 she worked at the archaeological seminar at Heidelberg University and at the University of Gießen . From 1922 to 1924 she worked for the German Archaeological Institute in Athens , from 1925 to 1929 in the Rome department . In Rome she was involved in the creation of the real catalog of the library. After returning to Berlin, she worked briefly for the headquarters of the German Archaeological Institute . She then worked at the University of Marburg until the beginning of 1933 . She was to move from Marburg to Bonn , where she was to compile a catalog of the vase collection at the Academic Art Museum . Before she could begin her service in May, the Professional Civil Service Restoration Act went into effect.

After she was barred from all opportunities for scientific activity in Germany, she was the only non-American woman to receive a scholarship from the American Association of University Women for 1934/35 , with the help of which she moved to Italy and also traveled to Greece and the USA undertook. During this time she continued to study ancient terracotta . After the scholarship expired, she was able to continue her studies with support from Hetty Goldman . After her father's death in May 1937, she returned to Germany to take care of the estate. After that it became problematic for them to leave Germany at all. When she succeeded, she first went to Switzerland, and in October 1938 to the USA. Since June 1939 she was recognized as an emigrant there. Although she lacked the economic means for a secure new beginning, she could rely on a broad network of connections. For example, her cousins Marcus , Morris, and Joseph Jastrow had been academics in the United States for a long time. Her friend Margarete Bieber and Frank Taussig , a friend of her father's , also belonged to the circle . She first settled in the Boston area and took on smaller jobs as a German teacher, museum photographer and saleswoman for casts. Together with her sister Lotte Beate Jastrow Hahn, who had emigrated to England, she tried to save her mother from Germany, which was finally achieved in October 1941 via the Cuba station. Anna Seligmann Jastrow lived with her daughter until her death in August 1943.

After Jastrow had a permanent residence permit since 1939, she was also able to take on better jobs. She first became a guide and assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , for a year, and from 1941 she taught at the Women's College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. In the fall of that year she was promoted to the rank of assistant professor at the Department of Art . There she taught all epochs of art history, which was not easy for her as an archaeologist. On the one hand, Jastrow was aware of her good fortune to have escaped from Germany; on the other hand, she suffered from the situation on site, from the weather to the lack of contact with the German academic world, the poor library and the lack of opportunities for her own research. She tried to compensate for the poor pay with German and English courses. Whenever she could, she left the Greensboro Narrows to do research in New York, Boston, and other places. Jastrow became a US citizen in December 1944. In 1961 she retired. Then Jastrow devoted himself more intensively to her archaeological studies. In 1970 she moved to a retirement home, where she died in 1981.

literature

• Hans Peter Obermayer: Elisabeth "Ebith" Jastrow. In: The same: German ancient scholars in American exile. A reconstruction. De Gruyter, Berlin 2014, pp. 133–191.

Web links

• Jastrow, Elisabeth. Biographical History
• Elisabeth Jastrow Papers