Gerda Eichbaum

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Gerda Eichbaum (born October 20, 1903 in Mainz , † July 1992 in Wellington , New Zealand ) was a German-New Zealand German philologist , university professor and art critic .

Life

Eichbaum passed the matriculation examination at the higher girls' school in Mainz in 1923 and from 1924 studied English, German and art history in Heidelberg, Prague ( German University ), Bonn and Giessen. In 1928 she received her doctorate with the title of sociology of literature, The Crisis of Modern Youth in the Mirror of Poetry, as one of the first students in Giessen with Karl Viëtor . In 1929 she passed the state examination for higher education, took a position as a research assistant and went to the University of Breslau with the historian Hermann Aubin . In 1931 she became a trainee lawyer in Mainz, but was not accepted into the civil service because of her non-Aryan descent. In 1933 she emigrated first to France, then to Italy and in 1936 to New Zealand. She worked in the girls' boarding school at Woodford House until she was dismissed again as an enemy German (" enemy alien ") at the beginning of the war and earned her living as a cook and other jobs. During the war she began writing articles for Art in New Zealand .

After retraining to become a librarian, she became the library director of the New Zealand Ministry of Education in 1947 and worked there for 15 years. She changed her last name to Bell in 1959. From 1962 to 1964 she was a lecturer in Italian and from 1964 to 1970, most recently as a lecturer in German literature at Victoria University of Wellington . In 1982 she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class.

Works (selection)

  • The crisis of modern youth in the mirror of poetry. Stenger, Erfurt 1929.
  • German settlement in New Zealand. A Hamburg colonization attempt in the 19th century. In: Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Universalgeschichte: Festgabe for Hermann Aubin on December 23, 1950. Nölke, Hamburg 1950, pp. 259–269.
  • as Gerda Elizabeth Bell: Ernest Dieffenbach . Rebel and Humanist. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North 1976.

literature

  • Leonard Bell: Strangers Arrive. Emigrés and the Arts in New Zealand, 1930–1980. Auckland University Press, Auckland 2017, ISBN 978-1-86940-873-2 , pp. 138 ff.
  • Renate Koch: Gerda Bell. In: James N. Bade (Ed.): In the shadow of two wars. Germans and Austrians in New Zealand in the twentieth century. Temmen, Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-055-9 , pp. 207-214.
  • Tobias Kaiser, Klaus Ries, Stefan Gerber, Werner Greiling: Between city, state and nation: the middle class in Germany. 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-30169-2 , p. 227.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Women's life in Magenza. The portraits of Jewish women from the Mainz women's calendar and texts on women's history in Jewish Mainz. Mainz 2010, p. 51 Gerda Eichbaum Bell
  2. ^ Leonard Bell: Outside Voices Disturbing the Peace. Two German doctors and their writings on art and culture in New Zealand. In: Journal of New Zealand Art History , No. 24, 2003, pp. 61-72.
  3. ↑ Dagmar Klein: First pouring, then Wellington. In: Gießener Allgemeine . June 4, 2018, accessed May 22, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Eichbaum, Gerda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bell, Gerda Elizabeth; Bell, Gerda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-New Zealand German studies specialist
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH July 1992
Place of death Wellington