Elise Hofmann-Bosse

Wilhelmine Elise Hofmann-Bosse (Boße) (born March 25, 1880 in Leipzig ; † December 12, 1954 there ) was a German librarian. As Walter Hofmann's companion in life and at work, she made a major contribution to the development and success of the Free Public Library Dresden-Plauen and played a decisive role in the development of the Leipzig College for People's Librarians , Germany's first training center for librarians .

To date, their work has in the colleges of librarianship in Cologne and Stuttgart , as well as in the Department of book and Museum of the College of Technology, economics and culture Leipzig left their mark.

parents house

Elise grew up as one of four daughters of the couple Heinrich Christoph Friedrich Bosse (Boße), master painter, and Friederike Emilie, née Zimmermann, in Leipzig. Her sisters Hildegard and Dora later also joined the library system. The third sister, Magdalena, died in 1927 at the age of 38.

Kindergarten teacher

She attended the community school of the Free Religious Community from 1889 to 1894 and then completed a two-year training as a kindergarten teacher in the Association for Family and Public Education. In 1896 she took up her first job as a tutor for the children of a Brandenburg landowner. Subsequently, she directed a village kindergarten near Berlin and from 1899 the company kindergarten of the Leipzig cotton mill. Her educational work was influenced by the teachings of Friedrich Fröbel and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi .

Workers education

As the daughter of Heinrich Christoph Friedrich Bosse (Boße), the so-called "old master of Leipzig workers 'education", Elise showed a strong interest in workers' education already in her youth , which through the confrontation with the oppressive working and living conditions of the workers in the cotton mill for life Commitment was.

For example, she dealt with the reform efforts of the social democratically influenced workers' library system. So u. a. with those of her future brother-in-law Gustav Hennig, who around 1900 developed library-technical methods such as individual reader support and reading guidance to raise the general level of education of the less privileged sections of the population and who practiced them in the Leipzig-Plagwitz / Lindenau workers' association library .

librarian

On July 1, 1906, Hofmann-Bosse joined the Free Public Library in Dresden-Plauen , headed by Walter Hofmann , her future husband, as a trainee , quickly advanced to first assistant and on April 1, 1913 to library manager. It gave Hofmann important impulses in the development of his reform work of the public library system and encouraged him to make library work part of his life. She allowed a socio-educational element to flow into her work, took part in the monthly meetings of the workers 'readers' advisory board (1909-1914), organized reading evenings, especially for young girls, and devoted herself to the children's and youth literature department. After her marriage to Hofmann, Hofmann-Bosse moved to Leipzig as the second librarian at the municipal library . Together with Ida Bienert , she supported the work of the Free Public Library in Dresden-Plauen as a member of the Board of Trustees until 1919 and stood by her successors Hermann Herrigel and Dora Bosse in an advisory capacity.

Library technology

Together with her husband, she established the technical college for library technology and administration in 1921 , which later became the Deutsche Volksbüchereischule . She took over the management and study management of this first training center for librarians in Germany. In terms of a strong user orientation , she taught methods of conveying literature and integrated the subject of population and reader studies , which combined sociological and demographic research with the reading behavior of library users .

With his journalistic work Hofmann-Bosse campaigned for equal rights for women in the library profession and propagated library work in the "Leipzig direction".

In May 1933 she was forced to give up her position as director of studies due to the so-called double earner decree; however, this did not prevent her from continuing her teaching activity in some subjects. Her son Reinhold died in 1944 at the age of 26. After the war, Hofmann-Bosse returned to her old post and did valuable work in the reconstruction of the librarian school from 1946 to 1949.

The late years

In 1951 she was made an honorary member of the Association of German People's Librarians for her services . After her husband's death in 1952, she lived in seclusion in Leipzig, sifting through and arranging his estate. Up until old age she dealt with questions about the relationship between academic and public libraries and devoted all her energy to the needs of the technical school.

She was buried in the south cemetery in Leipzig.

Publications

• The woman in the service of the popular Hofmann-Bosse library , Elise. - Leipzig: Thomas, 1915
• The People's Librarian - Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1927
• Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Free Public Library Dresden-Plauen 1906 - 1956 Hofmann, Walter; Hofmann bosses, Elise. - Free Public Library Dresden-Plauen; Gera; People's Watch; 1956; 67 pp.

Web links

• Estate writings

credentials

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Christiane Schastok, Hofmann-Bosse (Boße), Wilhelmine Elise, in: Sächsische Biografie, ed. from the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore eV, arr. by Martina Schattkowsky, online edition: biography of Elise Hofmann-Bosse (1880-1954). In: isgv.de. saebi.isgv.de, accessed on November 20, 2019 . 
2. ^ German National Library , accessed March 4, 2017.
3. ^ German National Library , accessed on March 4, 2017.
4. ↑ Gateway Bayern , accessed on March 4, 2017.