Elsa Bernstein

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Elsa Bernstein around 1905

Elsa Bernstein , née Porges (pseudonym Ernst Rosmer ), (born October 28, 1866 in Vienna , Austrian Empire ; † July 12, 1949 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel ) was a German writer and around 1900 a much-played playwright.

Life

Elsa Porges was the daughter of the music writer Heinrich Porges , who was summoned to Munich by King Ludwig II soon after Elsa's birth . She grew up in Munich, “brought up in the midst of the artistic war for Richard Wagner's new musical drama' she wrote in a self-disclosure. She converted from Judaism to Christianity and was baptized a Protestant with her parents in Munich. Bernstein worked as an actress for a short time, at the age of sixteen she appeared in smaller roles at the Magdeburg City Theater. In 1884 she was signed to the Braunschweig Court Theater and between 1884 and 1886 she appeared in a total of 37 roles. Due to her severe eye disease and the risk of going blind, she had to end her acting career early and returned to Munich . In 1890 she married the lawyer and writer Max Bernstein , and they had two children. After her eye problems prevented her from acting, she began to write her own dramas in 1891, which she published under the pseudonym Ernst Rosmer. With her husband she maintained an artistic-literary salon , which she had to close in 1939.

Only the name of the father, Heinrich Porges, survives on the family grave

Bernstein declined the possibility of emigrating to the USA in 1941 because her sister Gabriele was not given an entry permit. Because of her Jewish origins, she was deported first to Dachau on June 25, 1942 and then to the Theresienstadt ghetto together with her sister Gabriele on June 26, 1942 . Gabriele Porges perished in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Elsa Bernstein was housed in Theresienstadt with status A-Prominent in the Prominent House. She was liberated in early May 1945.

Bernstein died in 1949 and was buried in her father's grave in Munich's Ostfriedhof. (Grave M-li-94)

Create

Between 1892 and 1910, Elsa Bernstein published 14 dramas and also wrote novellas and poems. Her works are mostly assigned to the trend of naturalism , but they contain a broad stylistic pluralism. She received both praise and disapproval for the criticism contained in her works of the values ​​and norms of Wilhelmine society.

Her pseudonym was aired early on by theater critic Paul Schlenther . In 1893 he disclosed her real name in one of the first reviews of her drama Twilight in the magazine Magazin für Literatur . Nevertheless, she continued to publish her subsequent works as Ernst Rosmer. During National Socialism , the fairy tale opera Königskinder was printed until 1942 and performed on the stage until 1943. The pseudonym protected the play from destruction for a while.

factories

under the pseudonym Ernst Rosmer :

  • The Rose (poem, 1892, based on the painting The Rose by Max Nonnenbruch )
  • Dusk. Play in five acts (drama) In: Freie Bühne , vol. 4, h. 6 (June 1, 1893), pp. 609–629; H. 7 (July 1, 1893) pp. 737-752; H. 8 (1 August 1893), pp. 882-899. First performance in the Freie Bühne , Neues Theater Berlin, March 30, 1893.
  • Wir Drei (drama 1893, world premiere 2003 in the Solana Theater in Cologne in a production by Viktoria Burkert with Gerd Buurmann in the role of Richards)
  • Madonna (1894 short stories) ( 2020 Google online edition )
  • Königskinder (fairy tale drama 1895 [postdated, published 1894]; set to music by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1895 )
  • Te Deum (1896 comedy)
  • Themistocles (tragedy 1897)
  • mother Mary. Funeral Poem in Five Changes (1900)
  • Merete (1902)
  • Dagny (1904 drama)
  • Johannes Herkner (act 1904)
  • Nausicaa (Tragedy 1906)
  • Maria Arndt (1908 drama)
  • Achilles (tragedy 1910)

as Elsa Bernstein:

  • Life as drama. Memories of Theresienstadt (diary from the concentration camp, posthumously 1999)

literature

  • Sigrid Borck: Female Lead Characters in Elsa Bernstein's Dramas . VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-639-05162-9 .
  • Natalia Igl: Gender Semantics 1800/1900. On the literary discursiveness of the gender crisis in naturalism. (Palaestra. Investigations into European Literature 340) V&R unipress, Göttingen 2014. [Especially on Bernstein's naturalistic or naturalistic dramas Wir Drei (1893) and Twilight (1893) as well as the fairy tale drama Königskinder (1894, postdated to 1895)]
  • Jürgen Joachimsthaler : Max Bernstein. Critic, writer, lawyer (1854–1925). Lang, Frankfurt a. M. and others 1995, ISBN 3-631-48427-5 .
  • Jürgen Joachimsthaler: Elsa Bernstein's notes from Theresienstadt. In: Diversity and unity of German studies worldwide. Files of the XII. International German Studies Congress Warsaw 2010. Ed. Franciszek Grucza and others Vol. 11, Frankfurt/M. Lang 2012, pp. 183–187.
  • Franz von Wesendonk: Letters from Mrs. Elsa to the soldier Franz. But before that: When the crabs whistle on the mountains. Meander Edition, Mittenwald, 1977.
  • Ursula Wiedenmann: Elsa Porges-Bernstein. In: Manfred Treml , Wolf Weigand (ed.): History and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. CVs . Saur, Munich 1988, pp. 217–224.* Bernstein, Ms. Elsa . In: Sophie Pataky (ed.): Lexicon of German women of the pen . Volume 1. Verlag Carl Pataky, Berlin 1898, p. 61 ( digital copy ).
  • Ulrike Zophoniasson-Baierl: Elsa Bernstein alias Ernst Rosmer . Lang, Bern et al. 1985, ISBN 3-261-03540-4 .
  • Ulrike Zophoniasson-Baierl:  Rosmer, Ernst (actually Elsa Bernstein née Porges). In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 92 f. ( digital copy ).
  • amber . In: Brockhaus' Small Conversation Lexicon . Fifth edition, volume 1. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1911, p. 191 .
  • Rosmer. In: Meyer's Large Conversational Lexicon . 6th edition. Volume 17, Bibliographic Institute, Leipzig/Vienna 1909, p.  157 .
  • Amber, Elsa. In: Encyclopedia of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 18: Phil–Samu. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-598-22698-4 , pp. 371–376.

web links

Wikisource: Elsa Bernstein  – sources and full texts

itemizations

  1. ↑ Fritz Abshoff: Forming spirits. Volume 1. Oestergaard, Berlin 1905, p. 18.
  2. ↑ Elsa Bernstein: Life as Drama Memories of Theresienstadt . Editors: Rite Bake, Birgit Kiupel. 2nd Edition. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-931782-54-9 , p. 13 .
  3. ↑ a b Elsa Bernstein: Life as Drama Memories of Theresienstadt . Editors: Rita Bake, Birgit Kiupel. 2nd Edition. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-931782-54-9 , p. 15 .
  4. ↑ Elsa Bernstein: Life as Drama Memories of Theresienstadt . Editors: Rita Bake, Birgit Kiupel. 2nd Edition. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-931782-54-9 , p. 34 .
  5. ↑ Elsa Bernstein in the celebrity album of the Theresienstadt ghetto at www.ghetto-theresienstadt.de
  6. ↑ Ulrike Zophoniasson-Baierl: Elsa Bernstein alias Ernst Rosmer. A German playwright caught between the literary currents of the Wilhelmine era . 1985, ISBN 978-3-261-03540-0 , pp 23 .
  7. ↑ Susanne Kord: Make a name for yourself. Anonymity and Female Authorship 1700–1900. Verlag J.B. Metzler, ISBN 978-3-476-01438-2 , pp. 161 .
  8. ↑ Susanne Kord: Make a name for yourself. Anonymity and Female Authorship 1700–1900 . Verlag J.B. Metzler, ISBN 978-3-476-01438-2 , pp. 161 .
  9. ↑ Elsa Bernstein: Life as Drama Memories of Theresienstadt . Editors: Rita Bake and Birgit Kiupel. 2nd Edition. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-931782-54-9 , p. 11 .
  10. ↑ Poem The Rose in The Art of Our Time
  11. ↑ The painting The Rose in The Art of Our Time
personal data
SURNAME Amber, Elsa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosmer, Ernest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and playwright
BIRTH DATE October 28, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1949
PLACE OF DEATH Hamburg