Mimi Grossberg

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Mimi Grossberg (born Emilie Buchwald, April 23, 1905 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died June 2, 1997 in New York City ) was an Austrian writer in exile.

Life

Emilie Buchwald's father Salomon Buchwald (1873–1942) was a manufacturer who came from Konyha in Slovakia , therefore Emilie was initially Hungarian, her mother Adele Durst (1876–1942) was from Vienna . Both parents were victims of the Holocaust in September 1942 . Her brother Julius Buchwald (1909–1970) also managed to escape, among other things he was a well-known problem chess player . She attended the Black Forest School for a year and then the Mariahilfer Girls' College.

After graduating from high school, she took on the job of a librarian in the library of the Volksheim Ottakring and booked courses at the adult education center, including individual psychology with Alfred Adler and composition teaching with Paul Amadeus Pisk . She finished an apprenticeship as a milliner in 1929 and worked in the profession; her estate included 57 hats. Under the influence of her friend Klara Blum , she became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SDAP).

In 1930 she married Norbert Grossberg (1903–1970). Mimi Grossberg became a member of the Association of Young Authors Austria, which organized readings in cabaret literature on the Naschmarkt . In 1935 she published her first volume of poetry, Der Weg zu Dir .

After Austria's annexation in March 1938, the couple fled to New York in September of that year, where they found work in a hat factory. The attempt to catch up with her parents failed and led to a creative and identity crisis. She got involved in the emigre organization New World Club and worked in the Austrian Forum as the editor of a total of four anthologies of poetry by Austrian writers in exile. She did not succeed in changing literary language. In 1956 she published her second volume of poems Versäum, Vertraum ... in a Viennese publishing house . After visiting Austria with Rose Ausländer in 1957, she wrote the autobiographical text Märchenfee Austria . In 1964, the anthology Kleinkunst aus Amerika , which she oversees, was published with poems and prose by exiled writers.

In 1968 Grossberg, Irene Harand and Gottfried Heindl put together an exhibition in New York on the life and work of 62 authors of Austrian origin in the USA. The exhibition was shown in 1970 in the Amerika-Haus in Vienna .

In 1974, Grossberg received the Golden Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria . She was a member of the Austrian PEN Club . In 1988 she published the autobiography The Road to America .

In Vienna, Mimi-Grossberg-Gasse in the 22nd district was named after her.

Works (selection)

  • The way to you: poems . Vienna: Europa-Verlag, 1935
  • Fail, dream ...: Old and new poems . Vienna: European publishing house, 1957
  • (Ed.): Cabaret from America: poems, chansons, prose by authors living in America . Vienna: European Publishing House, 1964
  • Austria's literary emigration to the United States in 1938 . Vienna: Europa-Verlag, 1970
  • Austrian Writers in the United States 1938–1968: An exhibition of the Austrian institute and the Austrian forum. New York, April 5-26, 1968
    • Austrian Authors in America: The Skill and Achievement of the Austrian Emigration of 1938 to the United States . 1970
  • Poems and little prose . Vienna: Bergland, 1972
  • (Ed.): Austrian from America: Verse and prose . Vienna: Bergland, 1973
  • The Austro-Hungarian Army in Austrian satire . Vienna: Bergland-Verlag, 1974
  • (Ed.): America in the Austro-American poem 1938–1978 . Anthology. Vienna: Bergland-Verlag, 1978
  • (Ed.): History in a poem. The political poem by the Austro-American authors in exile from the fateful year of 1938 . New York: Austrian Institute, 1982
  • The road to America: Mimi Grossberg - her times and her emigration; a bilingual report; reminiscences, translations, stories, poems, photos . New York, NY: The Austrian Inst., 1986

literature

  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 421
  • Ursula Seeber, Alisa Douer : Women from Vienna . A photo book. Vienna: Women's Office, Vienna City Administration 1999, p. 46
  • Christian Klösch: Mimi Grossberg (1905–1997). An Austrian author in exile in New York . Book accompanying the exhibition of the Austrian Exile Library in the Literaturhaus Vienna. Vienna: Documentation Center for Modern Austrian Literature in the Literaturhaus, 1999
  • Christian Klösch: Grossberg, Mimi. In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 265-268.
  • Susanne Blumesberger (Ed.): Mimi Grossberg (1905–1997). Pioneer - mentor - networker. A life between Vienna and New York . Vienna: Praesens-Verlag, 2008
  • Petra Unger: Courage for freedom. Fascinating women - an eventful life . Vienna: Metroverlag, 2009
  • Katrin Wilhelm: Mimi Grossberg (1905–1997) and her literary network in exile in New York . Berlin: Pro BUSINESS, 2017 Dissertation Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, 2014

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julius Buchwald , obituary in NYT, August 10, 1970
personal data
SURNAME Grossberg, Mimi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer in exile
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1997
Place of death New York City