Hedwig Fechheimer

Memorial plaque for Hedwig Fechheimer, Helmstedter Strasse 10 in Berlin

Hedwig Jenny Fechheimer , née Hedwig Jenny Brühl , also known as Hedwig Simon ( June 1, 1871 in Berlin - August 31, 1942 there ) was a German art historian and Egyptologist . She was an important representative of the Berlin School and is known for her research into the sculpture of Ancient Egypt and its influence on modern art. As a Jew , she was persecuted by the National Socialists and committed suicide in 1942 to avoid being deported .

Life

The statue of a baboon with a cartouche of Pharaoh Narmer discovered by Hedwig Fechheimer in the art trade in Paris , today in the Egyptian Museum Berlin .

Hedwig Jenny Brühl was the daughter of Isidor and Bertha Brühl. She had an older sister who died as a child, and a younger sister and brother. In 1877 the family moved to Leipzig . Hedwig trained as a teacher in Breslau from 1892 to 1893 and then returned to her family. After the death of the father, the mother and the children moved back to Berlin in 1896.

In 1896 Hedwig Fechheimer enrolled at the University of Berlin as a guest student - the only way women in Prussia could get an academic education around this time. She studied art history and philosophy .

She met Sigfried Fechheimer at the university. They married on November 17, 1903. Sigfried Fechheimer died of tuberculosis just two months later . On September 17, 1917, she married the doctor Dr. Richard Simon. Her second husband died a few years later, probably in 1920 or 1921. After that, Hedwig Fechheimer lived with her sister Margarete Brühl - as before her marriage.

Hedwig Fechheimer found access to Egyptology through her acquaintance with Emilie and Ludwig Borchardt . She made friends with Carl Einstein and through him discovered her interest in contemporary French art. Within Egyptology, she took a critical stance towards the traditional currents of the subject. It can be attributed to the Berlin school .

Between 1913 and 1931 Hedwig Fechheimer published numerous articles on Egyptian art in the journal Kunst und Künstler . Her main work is the book Die Plastik der Aegypter , published in 1914 , in which she drew parallels between Egyptian art and Cubism . It triggered an extensive discussion in the professional world and was also noticed by a wider audience. In the same year a new edition had to be printed; In 1920 the fourth, slightly expanded edition appeared and was translated into French. Her second book, Small Sculpture of the Egyptians , was published in 1921.

From 1921 to 1933 Fechheimer was a member of the expert commission for the Egyptian department of the State Museums in Berlin . In this function she campaigned for the return of the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt.

In 1941 Hedwig Fechheimer and her sister Margarete were forced to vacate their apartment at Helmstedter Straße 10 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . They found accommodation at Heilbronner Strasse 8, where they sublet a room for about a year and a half. When their deportation was inevitable - Hedwig Fechheimer was 71 years old at the time - both sisters committed suicide. They are buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

Honors

Stumbling blocks before Hedwig Fechheimer's and Margarete Brühl's last voluntary residence

Since July 2, 2015, a Berlin plaque commemorates Hedwig Fechheimer at her last voluntary place of residence at Helmstedter Strasse 10 .

Stolpersteine in front of the house remember Hedwig Fechheimer (under the name Hedwig Simon) and her sister Margarete Brühl.

literature

• Sylvia Peuckert: Hedwig Fechheimer and Egyptian art. Life and work of a Jewish art scholar in Germany (= magazine for Egyptian language and ancient studies. Supplements, volume 2). De Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-0500-5979-2 ( limited view on Google Books ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Hedwig Fechheimer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Speech by Sylvia Peuckert on the unveiling of the memorial plaque for Hedwig Fechheimer on July 2, 2015
• Memorial plaque for Hedwig Fechheimer on the pages of the district office of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
• Stolperstein in Helmstedter Straße 10