Marie von Bunsen

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Marie von Bunsen (born January 17, 1860 in London , † June 28, 1941 in Berlin ) was a German writer , watercolor painter , traveler and Berlin salonnière .

Life

Marie von Bunsen, daughter of the Prussian politician and member of the Reichstag, Georg von Bunsen (1824–1896), and Emma von Birkbeck, who came from a wealthy English banking family, grew up in a liberal-minded family. The financial situation and the social position of her family made it possible for her to spend extended periods abroad and travel abroad, including to England, Italy and North Africa. Due to closer contacts with the Hohenzollern family (her grandfather Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen had been a Prussian diplomat) she was intended to be the lady-in-waiting of Empress Victoria . in the Year of Three Emperors broke 1888th

Financially secured by parental home and inheritance, Marie von Bunsen lived her life largely independently and with the income from book publications and painting sales in the times after the inflation of 1923 helped secure her livelihood. From 1892 to 1927 she was a member of the Association of Berlin Artists , which was called the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin until 1918 . Here she had several exhibitions. She specialized in landscape watercolors. Marie von Bunsen founded the Lyceum-Club Berlin in 1905 , she was also represented in committees of the women's associations around Hedwig Dohm , Helene Lange , Hedwig Heyl and Gertrud Bäumer , but without particularly distinguishing herself here. Her personal acquaintances included Marie von Schleinitz , Anna von Helmholtz and their daughter Ellen von Siemens as well as her fellow writer Elisabeth zu Wied alias Carmen Sylva, who later became Queen Elisabeth of Romania .

Since the turn of the century, the Salonnière has been receiving guests from Berlin society for its “Sunday breakfasts” in its apartment in the Tiergarten district. In 1905 she organized salons together with art lovers Hedwig Heyl and Else Schulhoff .

Marie von Bunsen repeatedly escaped life in Berlin and walked first with friends, later through Germany alone. In addition, she undertook extensive touring rowing tours on the Oder , Havel , Werra and Weser with her rowing boat “Formosa” .

In 1911 and 1914 she toured several Asian countries. She recorded her travel experiences in several books. Her friend Ottmar von Mohl made valuable contacts for her in Japan . In the country she not only frequented aristocratic and diplomatic circles, but also undertook a long hike along the Tōkaidō . About her stay in 1911 she wrote “In the Far East,” which was only published in 1934. The first edition contained a remark about the Meiji-Tennō , which led to protests by the Japanese embassy ("Outwardly he resembles a brutal criminal from the lower classes ..."). The second edition, which was soon to appear, was censored in accordance with Japanese requirements.

Her other publications include biographies of members of European royalty and a study of the art historian John Ruskin . In her memoirs, she described the nobility and personalities from politics and business of the Prussian upper middle class as well as scientists and artists of Berlin society around 1900, in the second volume of memories the time of the First World War and the first years of the Weimar Republic .

In 1918 she became a member of the left-liberal German Democratic Party and ran for election to the Prussian State Assembly on January 26, 1919, albeit on a hopeless list.

Marie von Bunsen was buried in the old cemetery in Bonn .

Works

  • Against the current. A mood picture from the new Berlin. Gebr. Paetel, Berlin 1893.
    • English: A winter in Berlin. Translated by Mrs. Dugdale. Edward Arnold, London 1899.
  • To Riedenheim and other stories. In: Engelhorn's General Novel Library. 15th year, volume 20. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1899.
  • In memory of Mrs. Anna von Helmholtz. Berlin 1899.
  • Udo in England. A travel story. With illustrations after watercolors by M. v. Bunsen and Heinrich Huebner. Krabbe, Stuttgart no year (around 1900).
  • Georg von Bunsen. A character picture from the situation of the vanquished drawn by his daughter. With 1 ill. By the author. Hertz, Berlin 1900.
  • All kinds of letters, novellas and sketches. With book decoration from the author. Grote, Berlin 1903.
  • John Ruskin. His life and work A critical study. Seemann, Leipzig 1903.
  • Sicily. History, art, culture. A companion book. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1910.
  • In a rowboat through Germany. With 16 illus. S. Fischer, Berlin 1914.
  • The woman and the conviviality. Library of the German woman, 2nd seaman, Leipzig 1916.
  • About cool waters, reeds and reeds - a rowboat tale. Holzwarth, Bad Rothenfelde [1926].
  • Our last social bloom. In: Emmy Wolff (Ed.): Generations of women in pictures. Herbig, Berlin 1928, pp. 99-107.
  • The world that I lived in. Memories from the happy years 1860–1912. With frontispiece and 19 ills. Koehler & Amelang 1929. Unchanged new edition. Koehler, Biberach an der Riss 1959.
    • English: The World I Used to Know, 1860-1912. Ed. and transl. Oakley Williams. Thornton Butterworth 1930.
  • Contemporaries that I experienced. 1900-1930. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1932.
  • In the Far East. Impressions and pictures from Japan, Korea, China, Ceylon, Java, Siam, Cambodia, Burma and India. With numerous color illus. after watercolors by the author. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1934.
  • Talleyrand's niece, the Duchess of Sagan. With 7 panels. German publishing house, Stuttgart 1935.
  • Wanderings through Germany. Impressions and pictures from my sketch folder. by Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1936 ( lexikus.de ).
  • Empress Augusta. Siegismund, Berlin 1940.
  • Maria Tudor. The Life of an English Queen 1516–1558. Siegismund, Berlin 1941.
  • In a rowboat through Germany. On rivers and canals from 1905 to 1915. Ed., Foreword Gabriele Habinger. Promedia, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-900478-78-3 (= Frauenfahrten series. Compiled from Bunsen 1914 and Bunsen 1936; partially slightly abbreviated; ill.).

Others

literature

  • Gertrud Bäumer: Marie von Bunsen farewell. In: The woman . 48, 1940/41, p. 346 f.
  • Paul Fechter : The Berliner. Franckh'sche, Stuttgart 1943 (Marie von Bunsen: pp. 234–238)
  • Petra Wilhelmy-Dollinger: The Berlin Salon in the 19th Century 1780–1914. de Gruyter, Berlin 1989
  • Gerhard Krebs : Marie von Bunsen and Japan. In: Japanese Studies. Volume 2, 1990. Study, Munich 1991, pp. 259-268.
  • Käthe, Paula and all the rest . A reference work. Ed. Association of Berlin Artists & Berlinische Galerie , Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture. Berlin 1992 ISBN 3-89181-411-9 , p. 32 f.
  • Cornelia Carstens u. a .: After the women. A walk on the Landwehr Canal. be.bra, Berlin 2000 (“In a rowboat through Germany: Marie von Bunsen”, pp. 45–47).
  • Bärbel Kuhn: Marital status: "single". Singular women and men in the middle class 1850–1914. In: L'Homme 5. Böhlau, Cologne 2000.
  • Franka Schneider: Marie von Bunsen, a “knowing traveler”. Exploring the folkloric knowledge milieu in Berlin. In: Folklore Knowledge. Actors and Practices. Berliner Blätter 50, Berlin 2009, pp. 87–112.
  • Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. First volume, Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Krebs: Tenno insults during the third empire. Tokyo 1992 ( OAG ).
  2. ^ [1] List of the Berlin candidates of the DDP
  3. ^ Photograph of the grave of Marie von Bunsen in Bonn
personal data
SURNAME Bunsen, Marie von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, painter, traveler and salonière
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1941
Place of death Berlin