Ida Hofmann

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Ida Hofmann around 1903
Ida Hofmann-Oedenkoven, Lotte Hattemer , Henri Oedenkoven in the winter of 1902–03
Ida Hofmann and Henri Oedenkoven (1903)

Ida Hofmann ( also called Ida Hofmann-Oedenkoven by Karl Rohm ; * October 5, 1864 in Freiberg ; † July 12, 1926 in São Paulo / Brazil ) was a German pianist , music teacher and author . Along with the Belgian industrialist's son Henri Oedenkoven and the former Habsburg soldier Karl Gräser, she is one of the founders of the alternative settlement project Monte Verità . As a writer, she dealt with questions of "life reform," women's rights and esotericism .

Life

On her father's side, Ida Hofmann came from a family connected with the Banat metallurgy and mining industry. Her father was the musically gifted mining engineer Raphael Hofmann (1829–1899), who had attended the mining academy in Freiberg, Saxony (Ida's birthplace) . Her mother Luise came from Braunschweig and was a born Orges. The maternal relatives included the writer and historian Justus Möser (grandfather) and the geologist Bernhard von Cotta (brother-in-law). Ida had three siblings: Justus and Eugenie (called Jenny), who were older than her, as well as the younger sister Julia (called Lilly). In 1879 the Hofmann family moved to Vienna . Hofmann studied music with Professors Wilhelm Dörr and Julius Epstein . She completed her training as a qualified music teacher and pianist.

Ida Hofmann was in her early thirties when she, who had already gained experience as a piano teacher in various families of the Viennese aristocracy, was offered a position in Cetinje , Montenegro . There the Russian tsarina set up a training center for daughters of higher circles. She accepted the offer and taught music.

In 1899 Ida Hofmann visited her seriously ill father in Bled , which then belonged to Austria and is now on Slovenian territory. She rented a room in the nearby Mallnerbrunn naturopathic facility , whose founder Arnold Rikli had made a name for himself as a "sun doctor" - he called himself "heliopath". There she met the then 25-year-old Belgian industrialist's son Henri Oedenkoven and the resigned Habsburg officer Karl Gräser . A close relationship developed between Hofmann and Oedenkoven, which one year later became a so-called reform marriage , also called a “vegetarian marriage” by the two of them.

In autumn 1900 Hofmann, Oedenkoven and Gräser migrated from Munich via Oberammergau and Cadenabbia to Ticino . They were joined by Ida's sister Jenny, a trained opera singer, Lotte Hattemer , a mayor's daughter from Stettin , and Gusto Gräser (actually Gustav), Karl's brother. The latter, as Ida Hofmann noted in her chronicle, was a “peculiar phenomenon” and for many other reasons “not suitable” for the planned project, he was only tolerated.

After various difficulties, the group got to the Lake Lugano and came near Ascona on the Monte Monescia , a hill of about 320 meters, which seemed to them best suited for their "vegetable Cooperative". There they bought a large plot of land, the purchase price of which was largely taken over by Oedenkoven, but in which Ida and her sister Jenny also participated. They quickly renamed the hill Monte Verità (= mountain of truth).

In the following years the founding group disintegrated. In 1901 Gusto Gräser was expelled from the community at the instigation of Ida and Henri Hofmann-Oedenkoven. Karl Gräser and Ida's sister Jenny, who had meanwhile also entered into a reform marriage, bought their own property near Monte Verità . There they lived as "prehistoric people" in an abandoned vineyard hut. Lotte Hattemer, seriously ill, died in 1906 from poison administered to her by the drug addict Otto Gross .

Henri and Ida gained new employees who joined the project for a short or long period. In 1901 the construction of a sanatorium began. First, so-called light air huts were built . Larger buildings were added in the following years. Monte Verità , now not only the name of the hill, but also the sanatorium, has become a meeting place for artists, writers, pacifists and life reformers of all stripes. Among them were Erich Mühsam , Hermann Hesse , Käthe Kruse , Max Weber , Gustaf Nagel , Jakob Flach and many more. In 1903 the Dutch life reformer Joseph Solomonson appeared in the sanatorium and above all convinced Ida Hofmann, who had previously been a vegetarian, of the necessity of a vegan lifestyle.

During the years of the establishment, Ida Hofmann was not only concerned with life reform ideas, her topics also included issues of women's rights . In 1902, her first book, How Do We Women Get Healthy and Harmonious Conditions of Life? The background to this publication were fictitious diary entries that appeared under the pseudonym Vera in a Leipzig publishing house and were hotly debated in bourgeois society. In her writings she often used the new ortografi developed by Henri Oedenkoven , which followed the motto: "Write as you speak". Here's an example:

“[The residents of Monte Verità strived] against the often lying behavior of the business world and the like. to the her konvenzioneler preliminary judgments of the society [after] in wort u. The act was to be, the lie to the distant direction, the truth to be helped. "

- Ida Hofmann

During the first year of the First World War , Henri Oedenkoven met the dancer Isabelle Adderley , who was born in India in 1890 . He married her and had three children with her. Ida and Henri remained on friendly terms with each other. Around 1920 she left Monte Verità with the Oedenkoven family and finally went to Brazil with her. The aim was to establish a new colony there called Monte Sol . Ida Hofmann fell seriously ill and sought healing from various specialists. For a short time she worked for the radio, finally, as a seriously ill person, she found accommodation with her youngest sister Lilly, who had meanwhile also emigrated to Brazil and lived in Lapa / Parana with her husband, the Protestant pastor Friedrich Wilhelm Brepohl .

Ida Hofmann died in São Paulo in 1926 after seeking help from a doctor there in vain.

Publications (selection)

  • How do we women achieve harmonious and healthy living conditions? Open letter to the author of “A mother for many” [Christine Thaler] . Self-published, Ascona, Lago Maggiore 1902, in the book trade by the reform publisher C. v. Schmidtz, Haimhausen.
  • Leaves promoting the vegetarian way of life. Vegetabilism! Vegetarianism! Self-published: Monte Verità near Ascona, printed by El. Em. Colombi & Co., Bellinzona 1905 ( PDF )
  • Monte Verità. Truth without poetry. Told from life. Karl Rohm: Lorch (Württemberg) 1906 ( PDF )
  • Contributions to the question of women. Central office for the distribution of good German literature: Winnenden [approx. 1920]
  • L'Importanza della Teosofia vera (no place or year information )

literature

  • Ida Hofmann d. In: Die Südschweiz from September 15, 1926 gusto-graeser.info
  • Julia Schiff: Extreme thinking and fanaticism. Ida Hofmann - a pioneer from Transylvania for an alternative life model. In: Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter . 47th year (1998), volume 4. pp. 339–343 gusto-graeser.info (then different date of death: July 4, 1930 in São Paulo)
  • Ute Druvins: Alternative projects around 1900. Utopia and reality on the “Monte Verità” and in the “New Community”. In: Hiltrud Gnüg (ed.), Literary Utopia drafts. Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch, 1982. pp. 236–249.
  • Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità 1900. The dream of an alternative life begins . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Munich 2017. ISBN 978-3-421-04685-7 .

Web links

Literature by and about Ida Hofmann in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the data and facts in the following section are based on Julia Schiff: Extreme Thinking and Fanaticism. Ida Hofmann - a pioneer from Transylvania for an alternative life model. In: Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter . Volume 47 (1998), Volume 4. pp. 339-343.
  2. ↑ Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità 1900. The dream of an alternative life begins . DVA: Munich 2017. p. 301.
  3. ^ Ida Hofmann-Oedenkoven: Monte Verità. Truth without poetry. Told from life. Karl Rohm: Lorch (Württemberg) 1906. p. 8.
  4. ↑ Hiking on Lake Maggiore. In: alpenverein-kronach.de , 2006, (PDF; 438 kB), accessed on November 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Hans-Peter Koch: A contact point for dropouts and do-gooders or Ascona's alternatives. Michael Müller publishing house, 2005.
  6. ↑ Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità 1900. The dream of an alternative life begins . DVA: Munich 2017. pp. 301, 303.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Thomas Blubacher: Free and inspired. Places of longing for poets, thinkers and dropouts. Ascona, Attersee, Capri, Bali, St. Moritz, Hiddensee. Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-938045-80-0 , p. 14.
  8. ^ Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità 1900. The alternative life begins . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Munich 2017. S. 240.
  9. ↑ Gusto Gräser.info: Ida Hofmann (1864–1926) ; accessed on November 18, 2017.
  10. ^ Stefan Bollmann: Monte Verità 1900. The alternative life begins . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Munich 2017. P. 305.
  11. ↑ Gusto Gräser.info: Ida Hofmann (1864–1926) ; accessed on November 18, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Ida
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofmann-Oedenkoven, Ida (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pianist, music teacher and author
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1926
Place of death São Paulo , Brazil