Else Feldmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Else Feldmann ( February 25, 1884 in Vienna - June 17, 1942 in the Sobibor extermination camp ) was an Austrian writer and journalist who was murdered by the Nazi regime.

Life

The daughter of Jewish parents grew up with six siblings in economically precarious circumstances. Through her energy, she managed to attend a teacher training college. When her father lost his job as a sales representative and the family was left with no income, she had to break off this training and work in a factory.

From 1908 she published numerous short stories as well as journalistic reports, such as juvenile court reports and texts on socially critical topics such as child distress, juvenile delinquency and the slums of the city. She mainly published in the "Abend", the " Neue Wiener Journal ", the " Neue Freie Presse ", the " Arbeiter-Zeitung " and in the magazine " Die Frau ". A selection of these social reports was first published in book form in autumn 2018. The cultural journalist and publisher Adolf Opel did the compilation for the volume volatile luck. Reports from the interwar period completed shortly before his death.

She also wrote novels , some of which were initially printed as serial stories in newspapers. In this way she reached people who did not buy or borrow books and made a living of her own. In the literary quality of her writings, however, she never sank to the level of trivial novels.

Dialogues played a major role in their texts. She also wrote a play entitled The Scream That Nobody Hears , which premiered on February 12, 1916 at the Vienna Volksbühne . The "Trauerspiel aus dem Ghetto", in spite of mostly benevolent reviews, did not meet with the hoped-for popularity with the public and was soon removed from the program. She also wrote other dramas, all of which are lost.

Her first independent book publication was the novel Löwenzahn - Eine Kindheit in 1921 . She maintained close contact with the Viennese journalist and literary scene (e.g. there was also a lost correspondence with Arthur Schnitzler ) and in 1933 was a founding member of the Association of Socialist Writers , which only existed for one year because of a government ban.

Her last major publication was the novel Martha and Antonia , which was printed from November 19, 1933 as a daily serial in the Arbeiter-Zeitung . When this was banned on February 12, 1934 at the beginning of the February fighting , Feldmann's novel broke off abruptly; the last chapters that could no longer appear have since been considered lost.

After that she hardly had any more opportunities to publish. In 1938 her works, including The Body of the Mother , were put on the list of harmful and undesirable literature by the National Socialists , in the same year she lost her community building (specifically in Toeplerhof in Vienna-Währing) with the note that the tenant is fully Jewish .

She was abducted by the Gestapo on June 14, 1942 and murdered three days later in the Sobibór extermination camp , which lies in eastern Poland on the Ukrainian border.

Commemoration

Memorial plaque for Else Feldmann

In 1994, Else-Feldmann-Gasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after her (it was closed in 2011 because this area is no longer a public traffic area due to the new zoning plan). A new park created in 2020 in the Trunnerstraße area ( Allied Quarter ) was named Else-Feldmann-Park .

The Brigittenau district council (20th district) dedicated a memorial plaque to the writer , which was attached to her former home at 9 Staudingergasse. The cover of the novel "Löwenzahn" is depicted on it and the following text reads: "Shaped by city life at the turn of the century, she described in her novel" Löwenzahn "a. a. the former widespread proletarian misery in Brigittenau ”.

This memorial plaque was integrated into the stations of remembrance in Vienna-Brigittenau , a way of commemorating the crimes of the National Socialists and their victims from Brigittenau. This path of remembrance was set up by the Stones of Remembrance Association , which is located in the neighboring district of Leopoldstadt.

Works (selection)

  • Balloon. In: The woman. Volume 33, No. 12, December 1, 1924.
  • Diary of a fifteen year old girl. In: The woman. Volume 41, No. 3, March 1932.
  • Dandelion. A childhood. - Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1921 (ÖNB call number: 541.722-B) new Vienna 1993 at the Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik (today: Döcker-Verlag); Vienna: Milena-Verl., 2003, ISBN 3-85286-108-X
  • Love without hope. Narratives . Publishing house of the Gutenberg Book Guild , Berlin 1928.
  • Melody in minor. Glöckner-Verlag, Berlin / Leipzig [1930].
  • The mother's body . E. Prager-Verlag, Leipzig-Vienna 1931. (= The face of time. A series of books for everyone 2), (ÖNB call number: 541.459-C), new: Milena Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-900399-75-1 .
  • Martha and Antonia. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung. Nov. 19, 1933 to February 11, 1934, new: Milena Verlag , 1997, ISBN 3-85286-035-0 .
  • Travesty of love and other narratives . Edition Atelier Wien 2013. New compilation of stories, edited and with an afterword by Alexander Kluy, 978-3-902498-83-0
  • Fleeting luck. Reports from the interwar period . Edition Atelier Wien 2018. Edited by Adolf Opel and Marino Valdez, with a foreword by Adolf Opel, ISBN 978-3-903005-44-0 .
  • Bearbite and Mildness [1928], ed. by Martin A. Völker , Weißensee Verlag 2019. ISBN 3899982673

Literature (selection)

  • Monika Nebosis: But what remains at the end? - Else Feldmann's novels 'Löwenzahn', 'Der Leib der Mutter' and 'Martha und Antonia'. Diploma thesis, Institute for German Studies at the University of Vienna, 1999.
  • Elisabeth Malleier: Jewish women in Vienna (1816–1938): welfare - education for girls - women's work. Dissertation. Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85476-085-X
  • Helga Mayer: Else Feldmann - journalist and writer. Diploma thesis. Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna, 1992.
  • Adolf Opel (ed.): Else Feldmann: Working for the theater. LiDi Europe publishing house, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-940011-06-0 .
  • Elisabeth H. Debazi: Writing from the margin. Else Feldmann: journalist and writer (1884–1942). In: Chilufim. Journal for Jewish Cultural History. 3/2007, pp. 97-109.
  • Thomas Mießgang: World without hope. In: The time . Hamburg. No. 47, November 15, 2018, Austria edition, p. 13.

Web links

Wikisource: Else Feldmann  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information about the book on the Edition Atelier publisher's website editionatelier.at
  2. ^ Contemporary reviews of The Scream That Nobody Hears (as pdf) theodorkramer.at
  3. ↑ Information about the Toeplerhof
  4. ↑ Birgit Schwaner, Empathetic inexorability wienerzeitung.at , Wiener Zeitung 1998.
  5. ^ Stones of Remembrance : Stations of Remembrance in Brigittenau . Station 32, accessed on January 10, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Feldmann, Else
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer and journalist, jew. Nazi victims
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1942
Place of death Sobibor extermination camp