Eva Büttner

Eva Büttner (born Eva Malzmann on July 27, 1886 in Dresden ; died on August 15, 1969 in Kamenz ) was a German publicist, art and music critic and politician.

Life

Eva Malzmann attended the citizens 'school and the municipal higher girls' school in Dresden from 1892 to 1902. She then studied at the Dresden Conservatory and passed the teacher examination for music theory and piano. She was taught music theory by the composer Paul Büttner , 16 years her senior , whom she married in 1909.

After completing her studies, she taught theory and piano at this conservatory from 1905. She founded women's and children's choirs in the German Workers' Choir Association of the Dresden district and took on leading positions in it. In 1909 she became a member of the SPD . At the beginning of 1914 she got the opportunity to travel for several months through Greece, Egypt, Palestine and Switzerland, about which she also gave lectures after her return.

Due to her extensive knowledge of cultural life and her high level of general education, she was able to work as an art critic for the “Dresdner Volkszeitung” from 1912 and - after it split off in 1926 - as a feature section and women's editor for the newspaper “Volksstaat” of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASPD) . She also joined this party in 1926 and worked for them on the Dresden sub-district executive from 1929.

After 1918 she also gave lectures on political issues, especially in the women's groups of the SPD. For this party she was a member of the Saxon state parliament from 1922 to 1926 and mainly represented cultural and artistic institutions and their concerns. She founded a folk music school at the conservatory, which her husband had been artistic director of since 1923.

In 1933, as a Jew, she lost her job as a result of the Nazi legislation and, under increasingly restrictive restrictions, initially worked as a note writer and in the Oskar W. Müller dye-washing facility in Dresden, until that too was forbidden. Despite the fact that she initially enjoyed protection from her “Aryan” husband, she suffered from numerous restrictions, prohibitions and harassment applicable to Jews, including “protective custody” in the Dresden police prison.

The only possibility of an intellectually fulfilling activity was the cultural life of the (then) Dresden "Israelite Community". Her numerous reviews, discussions and information for the Dresden “Gemeindeblatt der Israelitische Religionsgemeinde”, the “ Jüdische Rundschau ” and the “C.V. Zeitung” indicate, according to the researcher Agata Schindler, that she is hosting the cultural events of the “Jewish Künstlerhilfe ”and the“ Jüdischer Kulturbund Dresden ”not only visited, but created them as part of the creative core of these organizations, until this was also banned in 1938. It moved in the same circles as Viktor Klemperer at the time . When she was able to travel to Warsaw in the spring of 1936 for the opening of the “Main Jewish Library of Poland”, which was completed after eight years of construction , she provided the “Gemeindeblatt” with a “remarkable report in several parts” (Schindler).

"Every written statement by B. (sic, meaning Eva Büttner) that she published in the Jewish press between 1933 and 1938 is a treasure trove of information about Jewish cultural life after the 'seizure of power' by the National Socialists." ( Agata Schindler)

Her husband fell seriously ill in 1943 and died that same year. Eva Büttner managed to avoid being deported to an extermination camp with the help of the Dresden doctor Kurt Magerstädt (who, however, was no longer allowed to practice as a Jewish doctor) and the manor owner Margarete von Helldorff : She spent the last 20 months of the war anonymously and in seclusion in the attic above the Horse stable of Oberlichtenau Castle in Pulsnitz .

After 1945 she worked in Pulsnitz in the anti-fascist administrative committee and joined the KPD. From 1946 to 1952 she was head of the cultural office at the council of the district of Kamenz , partly also of the news and education office. She founded several cultural organizations in the district and regularly reviewed cultural events in the press. She died on August 15, 1969 in Kamenz and was buried in the Johannisfriedhof in Tolkewitz .

Services

Eva Büttner managed her husband's artistic estate. After her death, her husband's daughter took over the administration of the estate until it was handed over to the Saxon State Library (today: SLUB) in 1982. A large collection of Eva Büttner's contributions and lectures is also in this library.

literature

• Agata Schindler: Büttner, Eva . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .

Web links

• Eva Büttner in the Stadtwiki Dresden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Agata Schindler in the "Saxon Biography"
2. ↑ Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 96 (1982), p. 378.
3. ↑ Musical collection. in: Neue Zeit , March 11, 1983, p. 4.