Lally Horstmann

Lally Horstmann (born March 17, 1898 in Berlin , † August 10, 1954 in São Paulo ; born Léonie Lizzie Fanny Helene von Schwabach , also Lali Horstmann ) was a German writer.

Career

Lally or Laly Horstmann grew up in the cosmopolitan, cultured milieu of the Jewish financial bourgeoisie in Berlin and on the family's country estate in Kerzendorf near Ludwigsfelde . Her father was the banker and historian Paul von Schwabach (1867–1938), her sister was Vera von der Heydt (1899–1996), wife of the banker Eduard von der Heydt (1882–1964). Lally Horstmann later ran a large house in Berlin at the side of her husband, the diplomat and art collector Alfred Horstmann (1879–1947). Horstmann, who was considered a "half-Jew" according to the National Socialist race laws, survived the war under difficult circumstances.

After the end of the National Socialist dictatorship, the Horstmanns were subjected to harassment by the Russian occupiers. After the death of her husband in a Russian camp (May 17, 1947) she went abroad and died in Brazil. Her grave later fell victim to the construction of a road. The British painter John Augustus Edwin (1878–1961) painted a portrait of the attractive Lally Horstmann around 1922/1923 . It was auctioned at Sotheby's in London in January 2007 (in catalog LOT 57). The Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation owns a successful expressionist portrait bust of Lally Horstmann, created by the sculptor Fritz Huf .

Fonts

• Nothing for tears . Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1999, ISBN 0-297-64381-9 (EA London 1953).
  • No need for tears. Notes from the fall of Berlin 1943–1946 . Siedler, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88680-509-3 (former title: Infinite much has remained us , 1954).

Web links

• Literature by and about Lally Horstmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lali Horstmann in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)