Elsa Herzog

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Elsa Herzog (born March 5, 1876 in Berlin ; died March 7, 1964 in London ) was a German fashion editor. She was one of the leading society and fashion journalists of the Weimar Republic . She wrote about women's and men's fashion, worked for illustrated fashion magazines and the Berlin daily and weekly press. Persecuted as a Jew under National Socialism , she had to flee Germany.

Life

Elsa Herzog was the daughter of the businessman Moritz Herzog and his wife Adele, née Hirschel. After finishing her school career, she went abroad to study.

In 1893, Elsa Herzog began her career in the editorial team of Der Konfektionär , a specialist journal for the textile and clothing industry. She worked as a fashion editor for the women's magazine Die Praxis Berlinerin , published by Ullstein Verlag , which also published its social report on Berlin workers' homes in 1906, and switched to the Berliner Illustrierte Die Woche, published by August Scherl , from 1915 until the late 1920s . She had been one of the formative fashion editors of Die Dame magazine since around 1918 and one of the columnists of Styl in 1922/23 with her articles on current fashion . In Sport im Bild she wrote about women's and men's fashion and reported regularly about the press balls in the Berlin daily press .

Elsa Herzog observed and commented on how women's emancipation was reflected in fashion trends and triggered heated public debates, be it the los-vom-corset! - Movement or the dispute over the culottes . The discussions about fashion at this time were determined by the fear that the “external masculinization” of women in clothing and hair style could lead to an “internal masculinization”. Whereby this was understood to mean that women leave the domestic sphere and become independent. In an October 1918 edition of The Lady , Elsa Herzog wrote in one of her fashion notes :

“The saying that women belong in the house has long been out of date. The war made women independent, so that they can move freely in public without risking discredit. "

- Elsa Herzog : The Lady , 1918

When Sport in the picture cheered the bobbed head in 1921 , she remained hesitant. Not every woman is ready to sacrifice her “most beautiful decoration”. In 1924 she stated: “The 'masculinization' of women's fashion is currently one of the most popular topics in the illustrated newspapers.” In 1925, she initiated a survey in Sport im Bild about how women should dress in sports and concluded her article with the words that "Trousers" for women could not be stopped. Herzog organized the first fashion show in Berlin in 1929 as a supplement to the art exhibition The Woman of Today , which was organized by the Association of Women Artists in Berlin .

Like an art critic, Elsa Herzog judged fashion and classified it, gave advice on the right clothing for every occasion and thus created taste. She herself embodied the elegant fashion style she campaigned for. At social events, she appeared as glamorous as the actresses whose wardrobe she wrote about. In the twenties she was a media celebrity in today's sense. The Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft from 1930 presented Herzog and Ola Alsen in long ball gowns on full-page photos as representatives of the world of fashion in Germany.

Under National Socialism she was persecuted as a Jew and could no longer publish. Your last article, a report from the press ball for the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger , appeared on January 29, 1933, the day before Hitler came to power . In 1939 she had to flee Germany and emigrated to London. From there she resumed her work as a fashion editor in 1951 and was part of the editorial team of the Berlin fashion magazine Elegante Welt until her death in 1964 . Even when she was over eighty, she introduced international haute couture to the public. In 1958 she gave a lecture to students at the master school for fashion in Hamburg, now the Design Department . She talked about how everything comes back in fashion. Their motto was: "Never modern, always modern". She died in London two days after she turned 88.

Book publication

  • How do i make my man happy A book about the tasty household . With illustrations by Erika Plehn. August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1930

Award

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date and place of birth according to Wer ist's , Volume 8, 1922, p. 638
  2. ↑ a b Kerry Wallach: Weimar Jewish Chic. Jewish Women and Fashion in the 1920s Germany , in: Leonard Greenspoon (Hrsg.): Fashioning Jews. Clothing, Culture, and Commerce , Purdue University Press 2013, ISBN 978-1557536570 , pp. 117-119
  3. ^ Who is it , Volume 8, 1922, p. 638
  4. ↑ Mila Ganeva: Women in Weimar Fashion. Discourses and Displays in German Culture, 1918-1933 , Camden House, Rochester-New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-57113-205-5 , p. 68
  5. ^ Katie Sutton: The Masculine Woman In Weimar Germany , Berghahn Monographs in German History, Volume 32, New York-Oxord 2011, ISBN 978-0-85745-120-0 , p. 28
  6. ^ Katie Sutton: The Masculine Woman In Weimar Germany , Berghahn Monographs in German History, Volume 32, New York-Oxord 2011, ISBN 978-0-85745-120-0 , p. 25
  7. ↑ The woman of today. Paintings, graphics, plastic. Catalog for the exhibition in November-December 1929, introduction by Elsa Herzog. Foreword by Emmy Gotzmann , Verein d. Artists to Berlin
  8. ↑ Mila Ganeva: Women in Weimar Fashion. Discourses and Displays in German Culture, 1918-1933 , Camden House, Rochester-New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-57113-205-5 , p. 21
  9. ↑ Gretel Wagner: The night of beautiful robes. Fashionable impressions from the Berlin press ball . In: The Bear of Berlin . Yearbook of the Association for the History of Berlin , 49th episode 2000, p. 93
  10. ↑ Gretel Wagner: The night of beautiful robes. Fashionable impressions from the Berlin press ball . In: The Bear of Berlin . Yearbook of the Association for the History of Berlin , 49th part 2000, p. 87
  11. ↑ Walther F. Kleffel: Never modern, always modern. A little bow to Elsa Herzog , DIE ZEIT No. 40/1958 (archive)
  12. ^ AJR Information, Vol.XIX, No 4, April 1964, P. 15
  13. ↑ Adelheid Rasche, Anna Zika (ed.): STYL - the Berlin fashion journal of the early 1920s . Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-89790-316-6 , p. 191
personal data
SURNAME Duke, Elsa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fashion editor
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1964
Place of death London