Emma Isler

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Emma Isler (* November 3, 1816 as Emma Meyer in Dessau , † June 22, 1886 in Hamburg ) was one of the founders of the university for women .

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Emma Meyer was the youngest daughter of the merchant Berend Meyer (1764-1851) and Friederike Schwabe (1788-1851), whom the father had married for the second time. In Dessau she learned to read and write from a private tutor and, from the age of seven, received an apprenticeship for almost ten years with Mamsell Stötzer. In this school, daughters of nobles and wealthy people and a few Jewish women received instruction and were encouraged to think independently and critically. Emma Isler was one of the first generations of women of Jewish faith with a German school education.

Emma Meyer went to Hamburg with her parents in 1834. There the brothers Ludwig, Siegmund, Moritz and Ferdinand found work as bankers or entrepreneurs. The family joined the liberal temple association, which had its headquarters at 42 Alter Steinweg. In 1839 Emma Meyer married the librarian Meyer Isler . This gave her access to academically trained men and women. The couple had a daughter named Sophie, born in 1840 . Since Emma Isler had only received French lessons in Dessau, Meyer Isler gave his wife Greek lessons shortly after the marriage and later taught her and her daughter English.

Gravestone Emma Isler ,
Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery

Emma Isler was interested in current political and cultural reforms and was particularly concerned with the emancipation of women. In her marriage, she attached great importance to equality and conveyed this to her daughter. In 1848 she joined the Social Association of Hamburg Women to balance denominational differences , in which women of the Jewish and Christian faith were supposed to come closer to one another. This association merged in 1849 with the Ecumenical Women's Association for the Promotion of Free Christian Communities and Human Purposes by Emilie Wüstenfeld to form the Educational Association of German Women . The educational association founded the college for women a year later . Karl Friedrich Froebel , who at the request of the women was supposed to improve the training of kindergarten teachers in particular, ran the school. The letter from 1849, with which the association established contact with Froebel, came from Emma Isler.

After co-founder Bertha Traun left the facility and thus unsettled possible sponsors, the university had to close in 1852. Emma Isler stopped her work for the association, but continued to deal with matters relating to women's education. These included the Paulsenstift at the pumps in 1866 and the vocational school for girls that opened a year later. She wrote to her daughter, who lives in Braunschweig, about this, but no longer appeared in public. She also wrote letters to Sophie Magnus, in which she presented her views on the upbringing of girls and women's education and professions. These can be found today in the Institute for the History of German Jews .

Emma Isler was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf in grid square B 12.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ grave register
  2. ^ Cemetery plan
personal data
SURNAME Isler, Emma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Emma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founding member of the university for women
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1886
Place of death Hamburg