Lisbeth Gombrich

Lisbeth Gombrich (born March 12, 1907 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † December 12, 1994 in Oxford , United Kingdom ) was an Austrian- British lawyer , writer and translator who wrote German sagas and fairy tales as a children's book author, especially in the 1940s translated into English . Before and after that, she also translated various German-language academic works on art history or biology into English.

Her older sister was the violinist Anna Forsdyke (1905–1994); her younger brother was the art historian Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001).

Life

Lisbeth Gombrich was born on March 12, 1907 as the daughter of the lawyer and professor Karl B. Gombrich (1874–1950) and his wife, the pianist and professor Leonie Gombrich (née Hock; 1873–1968), in Vienna. In addition to her older sister Anna Forsdyke (1905–1994), a violinist, she also had a younger brother, the later art historian Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001). She grew up in Vienna and after the First World War spent nine months with her younger brother as a foster child of a coffin maker in Sweden . In her home country she attended a humanistic grammar school before starting to study law at the University of Vienna . On 24 January 1930 took place its graduation to the doctor of law .

Like most women who belonged to the first generation of female lawyers in Austria, Gombrich was the daughter of a lawyer with whom she subsequently began to work as a trainee lawyer after completing her studies in 1931. At that time she already had professional experience in the commercial sector and was also teaching English. In the early 1930s, she also offered legal advice to women through the Women's Action Committee in the first district of Vienna. On July 18, 1934, Gombrich was entered on the defense attorney's list , where it was not entered for too long. With the decision of the Federal Ministry of Justice effective June 9, 1936, she was deleted from the list - without giving reasons - and from November 16, 1936, she was again employed as a trainee lawyer in her father's office. Only a short time later, on February 3, 1937, she was re-entered on the list of defense counsel before she was also included on the list of lawyers in the Chamber for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland on December 7, 1937. She practiced her profession in her father's office at Mölker Bastei No. 3 , a building next door to Palais Ephrussi , in Vienna's first district of Inner City .

Although she belonged to the Protestant religious denomination AB , she was considered a Jew due to the Nuremberg Laws and was therefore deleted from the list of lawyers after the annexation of Austria at the end of 1938 due to the Reich Citizenship Act . In order to avoid further actions on the part of the National Socialists , she emigrated to the United Kingdom , where, however, due to the completely different legal systems, she was no longer able to practice her profession. Enthusiastic about the English language at a young age, Gombrich began translating scientific works from German into English. This included in particular works from the fields of biology and art history, including some works by her younger brother. The artists she dealt with include Marc Chagall , Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso . In the 1940s she translated German sagas and fairy tales into English as a children's book author, with publications such as The Story of Hansel and Grethel (1943), The Story of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1945), The Story of the Seven Ravens (1945 ) or The Amazing Pranks of Master Till Eugenspiegel (1948; together with Clara Hemsted ). Until her death she published works on art history, one of her last publications being the translation of a work by her brother entitled Art and Criticism from 1993.

Gombrich died in Oxford on December 12, 1994 at the age of 87.

Translations (selection)

Children's and young people's literature

• 1943: The Story of Hansel and Grethel
• 1945: The Story of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp
• 1945: The Story of the Seven Ravens
• 1948: The Amazing Pranks of Master Till Eugenspiegel (with Clara Hemsted )

More translations

• 1967: Gombrich, Ernst H .: Art and Illusion.
• 1976: von Frisch, Karl : Animal Architecture.
• 1980: Timm, Werner : Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945).
• 1983: Gombrich, Ernst H .: The crisis of cultural history. Thoughts on the value problem in the humanities.
• 1984: Tinbergen, Niko , Tinbergen, Elisabeth A .: Autism in children. Advances in understanding and new healing treatments give hope.
• 1984: Gombrich, Ernst H .: Image and Eye. New studies in psychology.
• 1985: Gombrich, Ernst H .: The art of the Renaissance.
• 1986: Gombrich, Ernst H .: The symbolic image.
• 1988: Gombrich, Ernst H .: News about old masters.
• 1993: Gombrich, Ernst H .: Art and Criticism.

literature

• Ilse Korotin : biografiA. Lexicon of Austrian Women (four volumes) . tape 1 . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2 , p. 1056-1057 .
• Susanne Blumesberger : Handbook of Austrian authors of books for children and young people (two volumes) . tape 1 . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-78552-1 , p. 364-365 .
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century . Volume 1: A-I. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 445.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Associations and assemblies - Frauenaktionskomitee Innere Stadt .. In:  Arbeiter-Zeitung , June 22, 1932, p. 10 (online at ANNO ). , accessed on February 28, 2020