Maria Schwauß

Maria Schwauß at the age of 29

Maria Thekla Henriette Schwauß (born April 11, 1889 in Bautzen , died January 24, 1987 in Dresden ) was a German writer, translator and Latin American expert.

Life

After graduating (Selekta) from the IV. Dresden Citizens ' School, Maria Schwauß attended the kindergarten teachers' seminar of the General Educational Association in Dresden from 1905 to 1907 . After she had passed the Matura exam in Zurich in 1912 , she began studying zoology and botany at the University of Zurich . In 1914 she had to break off her studies due to financial difficulties. She then worked in changing positions as a teacher in private schools and gave performances as a lecturer.

From October 1920 to February 1925 she worked as a private tutor for a German family of planters on a coffee finca near Patulul in Guatemala ( Central America ). She traveled extensively and made notes on the language, customs and nature of Guatemala.

After her return to Germany, she worked in the Argentine consulate in Dresden from October 1928 . There she met the writer, translator and former reform pedagogue Georg Hellmuth Neuendorff (1882–1949). Schwauß and Neuendorff began an intensive collaboration in the area of publicizing, translating and distributing Latin American literature in Germany , which only ended with Neuendorff's death. Together they not only wrote translations from Latin American Spanish, but also plays. The highlight of this work was to be a dictionary of Latin American Spanish. In 1938 they signed a contract with Langenscheidt Verlag , who wanted to publish the work quickly. However, both the start of the war and lexicographical difficulties delayed publication. The original manuscript was destroyed in a bombing raid on January 30, 1944.

After several articles in specialist journals, Schwauß published the book "Tropenspiegel" in 1940 (subtitle "Diary of a German Woman in Guatemala"). A few months earlier she had joined the NSDAP , although she had supported the SPD until the Nazis came to power . In 1942 a thematically similar book with short stories ("Im Banne der Vulkane") was published.

After the end of the Second World War , Schwauß and Neuendorff resumed work on the dictionary. After Neuendorff's sudden death in 1949, Schwauß continued the work on his own for several decades. In addition, she wrote plays, short stories and a script exposé, all of which, however, remained unpublished.

From 1949 Schwauß was connected to a friendship and correspondence with the Freital writer Marianne Bruns . In the GDR, Schwauß did some translation work from Latin American Spanish a. a. for the Mitteldeutscher Verlag . In the 1970s, the VEB Enzyklopädie Leipzig published two dictionaries of Latin American Spanish created by Schwauß.

In the 1980s Schwauß received the Dresden Art Prize and the GDR Patriotic Order of Merit .

Maria Schwauß died on January 24, 1987 at the age of 98 in Dresden.

Works

Tropical level. Diary of a German woman in Guatemala. Payne, Leipzig 1940.
Under the spell of the volcanoes. The fate of women from the American tropics. Wehnert & Co., Leipzig 1942.
Alegria, Ciro: Shepherds, flocks, dogs, translated from Peruvian Spanish by Maria Schwauß, Halle 1957.
Rodriguez, Antonio: Man in Flames, translated by Maria Schwauß, Dresden, 1967.
Latin American Linguistics, Volume 2, Dictionary of Flora and Fauna in Latin America, Amerikaspanisch – German, Leipzig 1970.
Latin American Linguistics, Volume 1, Dictionary of the regional colloquial language in Latin America, American Spanish – German, Leipzig 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Katrin Neuhaus: Die Lichtwendige. Challenges for Maria Schwauß as a single, female intellectual in the 20th century. A biography . Master's thesis, Fernuniversität zu Hagen, October 2016. PDF , accessed on August 9, 2017.

personal data
SURNAME	Schwauß, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schwauß, Maria Thekla Henriette (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German writer, translator and Latin American expert
DATE OF BIRTH	April 11, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bautzen
DATE OF DEATH	January 24, 1987
Place of death	Dresden

[:0-1] Katrin Neuhaus: Die Lichtwendige. Challenges for Maria Schwauß as a single, female intellectual in the 20th century. A biography . Master's thesis, Fernuniversität zu Hagen, October 2016. PDF , accessed on August 9, 2017.