Elise Polko

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Elise Polko, 1870. Graphic by Fritz Kriehuber.
Elise Polko; Dedication: "Mrs. Elise Polko, Christmas greeting 1891"

Elise Polko (née Vogel; born January 31, 1823 on Wackerbarths Ruh ' ( Naundorfer Flur ), today in Radebeul ; † May 15, 1899 in Munich ) was a German poet and singer.

life and work

Elise Vogel was the first child of Rector Carl Vogel , who, together with his father-in-law Carl Lang, ran the boys 'education institute established in Wackerbarths Ruh' in 1816 . In 1824 the family moved to Krefeld , where their father ran the Höhere Stadtschule (later secondary school) until 1832 . After 1832 the family moved to Leipzig . There she received not only a careful upbringing but also music lessons from the music director Polenz and the singing professor Fred Böhme.

Her brother Eduard Vogel , born in Krefeld in 1829 , the fifth child of the Vogel family, was a well-known astronomer and Africa explorer and was executed in 1856 in the Sultanate of Wadei, east of Lake Chad , on the orders of the local ruler. The youngest brother Hermann Carl Vogel (1841–1907) became director of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam.

Elise Vogel belonged to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's circle of friends ; She found acceptance in the house of Mendelssohn's sister Fanny Hensel . This group also included Jenny Lind , Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and Rahel Varnhagen von Ense . Polko's voice and her talent aroused Mendelssohn's interest, who encouraged her as well as Livia Frege . On Mendelssohn's advice, she trained as a singer ( mezzo-soprano ). She has also tried herself successfully as an opera singer; She completed her vocal studies in Paris with Manuel Garcia . Her plan to go to the stage was prevented by changes in family circumstances. After the outbreak of the February Revolution in 1848 , she returned to Leipzig. In 1849 she renounced a stage career as a singer and married Eduard Polko, a railway engineer and later railway director of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company . From then on she devoted herself to writing.

She lived with her husband in Duisburg, from around 1851/52 for about 25 years in Minden in Westphalia, where they moved into an apartment in the train station , from 1877 in Wetzlar and 1880 in (Cologne-) Deutz. In February 1887, shortly after the death of her terminally ill son, her husband also died - leaving behind some debts. In addition, her husband had neglected to allow her to be included in the pension scheme when the railway company was nationalized. And she had to support her family. At first she lived in Hanover, which she had to leave again for health reasons, from 1891 in Wiesbaden, from where she moved to Frankfurt in 1895 for cost reasons, lastly from 1898 in Munich. She received a small pension by mercy, earned a living by writing and by taking in mostly older pensioners, including a young daughter of the poet Theodor Storm at times , and gave singing (?) Lessons, she was also supported by donations and loans Marianne Rhodius , who left the city of Krefeld in addition to numerous legacies 1.8 million marks as a foundation.

Elise Polko's work was largely created in Minden, where she also met Carl Wilhelm August Krüger , who had amassed a well-known art collection. In her book Significant People. She reproduces a story by the art collector with portrait sketches, memoirs and novellas from 1895. But Polko mostly took her subjects from the field of music. Her best-known works are the novels Memories of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Faustina Hasse , Nicolo Paganini and the violin makers as well as musical fairy tales, fantasies and sketches in three volumes, a work that saw 25 editions. The three volumes of musical fairy tales tell stories from the past and present from the musical life of past centuries. They are memories of famous musicians. In the story A double star in the sky art play Clara and Robert Schumann , the main role. And in Porpoto in Dresden 1744 the readers are taken to the court of Frederick August II , the son of Augustus the Strong .

These works were mostly very successful and were particularly popular with women. Nevertheless, Elise Polko could not get out of the financially cramped circumstances, although she wrote non-stop, so to speak, to pay off loans. In a letter to Marianne Rhodius she complained: “Given the popularity of my pen and the ease with which I work, as an English or French writer I would have been able to fulfill the expensive obligations mentioned without much effort, but the fee for the German writers is yes just so little compared to those - and so I really have to torment myself and almost all those works, dear lady, which many hearts delight in, bear the secret motto 'in doloribus pinxit' (painted in pain). “She was also unlucky in choosing her publishers, which went bankrupt, so she had to buy back her books.

Today her works are little known and mostly only available in second-hand bookshops. A detailed bibliography of the works, essays and stories can be found in the Westphalian Author Lexicon. Further material can be found in the Krefeld city archive.

Works (selection)

Editing

House garden, collection of citates and poems about the life of women, Leipzig 1872 (title page)
  • Poets greetings . Newer German poetry selected. Amelang, Leipzig 1860. Digitized edition of the Bavarian State Library
  • Bridal bouquet . Collection of German, French and English poems and quotations from the more recent literature on love. Frohberg, Leipzig 1870
  • A women’s album . Illustrated yearbook with calendar. Verlag der Literar.-Artist. Institution, Vienna 1872
  • Home garden . Collection of citates and poems on the life of women. Frohberg, Leipzig 1872
  • Nursery . Collection of citates and poems about mothers, children and upbringing. Frohberg, Leipzig 1872
  • Places of memory of Queen Luise in the context of oral traditions. Recorded by Caspar Scheuren and EP - Düsseldorf 1878 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • From a foreign place . New poet greetings from many countries collected. Schottländer, Breslau 1879
  • Vesta . Paperback for Germany's women and virgins. With illustrations by famous masters. 5 years. Eckstein, Leipzig and Berlin 1879–1885
  • Friendship album . Older and newer poetry sayings in poetry and prose. Licht and Meyer, Leipzig 1882
  • From garden and fields . A bouquet of english poems. Eckstein, Berlin 1883
  • At the silent hearth . Poems and sayings from the German poetry treasure. Bruns, Minden 1884
  • German girls' calendar for the year 1890 . With the participation of outstanding women writers. Fried, Berlin 1889
  • German Girls Yearbook . Born 1891. Gnadenfeld, Berlin 1891
  • La Belle France . Anthology lyrique. Eckstein, Berlin 1880
  • Our faith, love, hope . Religious and serious songs and verses by recent and recent poets. Sponholtz, Hanover 1891
  • Our children . Poetic thoughts and words from the heart of German and foreign poets. Greiner and Pfeiffer, Stuttgart 1892
  • Blue violets . A fresh bouquet of German poet's flowers. South German Publishing Institute, Stuttgart 1894
  • Julie Burow-Pfannenschmidt: Thinking sayings for the female life . Collected pearls for refinement for mind, spirit and heart. Schotte, Berlin and Leipzig 1874

Documents

Letters from Elise Polko are in the holdings of the Leipzig music publisher C. F. Peters in the Leipzig State Archives .

literature

  • Manfred Altner: boys' school “Wackerbarths Ruhe” (1816–1823) . In: Preview & Review ; Monthly magazine for Radebeul and the surrounding area . May 2000, p. 3-5 ( online ).
  • Frank Andert (Red.): Radebeul City Lexicon . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 .
  • Franz Brümmer :  Polko, Elise . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 53, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1907, pp. 95-98.
  • Walter Gödden, Iris Nölle-Hornkamp (Hrsg.): Westphalian author lexicon . Volume 2: 1800 to 1850 . Schöningh, Paderborn 1994, ISBN 3-506-79742-5 , pp. 319-325.
  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: "Something about the lion ... that licked blood". Carl Wilhelm August Krüger (1797–1868) and his collection . In: Mitteilungen des Mindener Geschichtsverein 77, 2005, ISSN  0302-2188 , pp. 115–142.
  • Karl-Heinz Schock: Theodor Storm and Elise Polko. A contribution to Storm research and Minden's local history . In: Mitteilungen des Mindener Geschichts- und Museumsverein 39, 1967, ISSN  0302-2188 , pp. 55–86.

Web links

Commons : Elise Polko  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Elise Polko  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Further information on Elise Polko
  2. ↑ Date of birth according to the Radebeul city dictionary . Confirmed by the Radebeul City Archives to user: Jbergner on August 27, 2009 based on his own documents and information from the Munich cemetery administration.
  3. ^ Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Karola Ludwig, Angela Wöffen: Lexicon of German-speaking women writers 1800–1945. dtv Munich, 1986. ISBN 3-423-03282-0 . P. 241ff
  4. ^ Karl Rembert: On the life story of two children of the Krefeld Rector Dr. Karl Vogel . In: Karl Rembert (Hrsg.): The home - magazine for Niederrheinische Heimatpflege . 18th year, issue 1. Krefeld 1939, p. 76 .
  5. ^ Frank Andert: The historical portrait: Johann Peter Hundiker (1751-1836). In: Preview & Review; Monthly magazine for Radebeul and the surrounding area. Radebeuler monthly books e. V., February 2011, accessed February 6, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Polko, Elise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vogel, Elise (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet and singer
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Wackerbarth's peace at Radebeul
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1899
Place of death Munich