Martha Lasker

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Martha Lasker (born November 19, 1867 in Berlin as Martha Bamberger , † October 18, 1942 in Chicago ) was a German-Jewish writer. In her publications she used the pseudonym L. Marco .

Life

She was the daughter of the bank employee Jacob Bamberger (1822-1907) and his wife Lina (1832-1915) and grew up in Berlin. Her first marriage was from 1886 to the piano manufacturer Emil Cohn, with whom she had a daughter Charlotte, born in 1887. From 1900 she worked as a writer. She wrote lyrics that were performed in the Überbrettl cabaret and humorous articles for various newspapers such as the Berliner Morgenpost and the Simplicissimus . In 1901 her first book with short prose was published under the title How they love with an edition of 10,000 copies. Your second book, a collection of satirical verses under the title Shocking? , appeared in the same year and reached five editions by 1903. In mid-1902 she first made the acquaintance of the reigning world chess champion and mathematician Emanuel Lasker , with whom she had a lively correspondence in the following years. After Lasker returned to Germany in 1908 from a stay of several years in the USA , the two often met, which was tolerated by her husband, who was already seriously ill at the time. Emil Cohn died on December 18, 1909, and after a year of mourning Martha Cohn and Emanuel Lasker married on March 1, 1911 in Berlin. In 1912 she published a collection of poems entitled From the department store of life . During the First World War Martha Lasker appeared as a lecturer in hospitals. Later she largely gave up her own writing activity and supported her husband in his work. Numerous letters in private collections testify to their harmonious partnership. In the 1920s Martha Lasker organized “literary afternoons” in her apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf , at which well-known intellectuals were guests. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , she went into exile with her husband, first to the Soviet Union , then to the USA. After the death of her husband, she went to see her granddaughter Lissi Hirschberg in Chicago, where she died on October 18, 1942. A manuscript biography of her husband remained unpublished. Her memories were processed by Jacques Hannak , to whom she had given access to her files, in his book Emanuel Lasker, Biography of a World Chess Champion (1952).

literature

  • Richard Forster, Stefan Hansen, Michael Negele: Emanuel Lasker: thinker, world citizen, world chess champion . Exzelsior-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-935800-05-1 (especially p. 195 ff.)
  • Jacques Hannak: Emanuel Lasker, biography of a world chess champion , Engelhardt, Berlin 1952.