Natascha A. Brunswick

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Natascha Artin Brunswick, 2000

Natascha Artin Brunswick , née Jasny (born June 11, 1909 in St. Petersburg , † February 3, 2003 in Princeton ) was a German-American mathematician and photographer .

From St. Petersburg to Hamburg

Natascha A. Brunswick was the daughter of Naum Michailowitsch Jasny, a Russian Jew from Kharkov who worked as a political economist . Her mother, Maria Orlowa Jasny, was a Russian nobleman, studied dentistry and belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church. Since marriages between Russian Orthodox and Jews were forbidden in Russia at the time, she converted to Protestantism. The couple got married in Finland .

Naum Jasny worked with the Mensheviks and fled to Tbilisi after the October Revolution in 1917 . Natascha followed her father in 1920 together with her mother and sister Tatyana Naumovna Jasny. After the Bolsheviks took over Georgia, the family fled across the Black Sea via Constantinople to Linz on the Danube in 1922 . In 1924 the family moved briefly to Berlin and from there to Hamburg. Natascha Jasny attended the top prima of the progressive Lichtwark School , in which art was one of the main subjects.

After graduating from high school in 1928, she intended to study architecture at the Bauhaus Dessau , but this was not possible due to the family's financial situation. Instead, she studied mathematics at the University of Hamburg and also attended lectures by the art historians Aby Warburg , Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky . She completed her studies in 1930 with a master's degree, but initially did not pursue an academic career further.

On August 29, 1929 she married her mathematics professor Emil Artin , who had taught in Hamburg since 1923. The couple first moved into an apartment at Kleekamp 1-5 in Fuhlsbüttel and a short time later into an apartment at Willersweg 9 in Langenhorn . The couple had a daughter Karin in 1933 and a son Michael Artin in 1934 .

In 1937 Emil Artin was withdrawn from teaching by the National Socialists because of his wife's Jewish origins on the basis of the law to restore the civil service . Emil Artin had to make a declaration on September 27, 1934 that his wife was not of “Aryan” descent. The family managed to emigrate to the USA. Due to the ban on exporting large amounts of money, the family had all of their modern household items shipped. At that time you were in contact with other exiles from Germany and Austria.

Living in the USA

In the United States, her husband was given a chair at the University of Notre Dame and from 1938 at Indiana University in Bloomington . The couple's third child, Thomas (Tom), was born there in 1938. During the Second World War , Natascha Artin was considered an enemy alien because of her origins . In 1942 the American Army commissioned them to give soldiers Russian language lessons as part of the Army Specialized Training Program at Bloomington University.

In 1946 the family moved to New Jersey , where Emil Artin taught at Princeton University . In 1958 the couple divorced, after which Emil Artin returned to Hamburg. Natascha Artin married the composer and music professor Mark Brunswick (1902–1971) for the second time in 1960 .

In 1998 she returned to Hamburg on the occasion of Emil Artin's 100th birthday. Here she was a guest of the Hanseatic city as part of the program to “maintain relationships with former Jewish fellow citizens of Hamburg”. She lived in Princeton until her death in 2003.

Work as a mathematician

After arriving in New Jersey, Natascha Artin worked from 1946 on the mathematics faculty of New York University under the direction of Richard Courant . In 1948, she took over the technical editing of the newly founded journal Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematics , which she edited until she was 80 in 1989. From 1956 to 1996 she also worked as the main translator for the magazine "Theory of Probability and Its Applications". In addition to mathematics, she also taught Russian and translated articles from German, French and Russian for various journals.

She was an honorary member of the American Mathematical Society for more than 50 years .

Working as a photographer

Even as a schoolgirl, Natascha A. Brunswick took natural photographs of her family and schoolmates. The very first pictures already demonstrated a pronounced natural feeling for design, as well as technical talent and organizational talent. She used a simple box and developed the pictures in the domestic bathroom, which was temporarily converted into a darkroom with a black cloth . Instead of the usual contact prints , she had the negatives made postcard-sized prints. Using an Ernst Leitz enlarger, she herself made enlargements on baryta paper of the pictures she liked best . She read up on this in specialist books and subscribed photo magazines. About 30 of these photos have been preserved, but the negatives are no longer available.

After the wedding, Emil Artin, who was also an enthusiastic photographer, gave her an expensive Leica A camera in Hamburg in 1929 . The black lacquered standard model with a weatherproof rubber cover, which had been in series production since 1925, was equipped with a Leitz Elmar f = 50 mm l: 3.5 lens. A focal plane shutter for snapshots allowed exposure times of 1/30 up to 1/500 seconds. In contrast to the earlier unwieldy cameras , the new Leica could take snapshots unnoticed. This made new image views possible and brought about new viewing habits. To this end, the young woman experimented with unusual image formats and created perfectly crafted barite prints in different formats and sizes.

The painter and sculptor Heinrich Stegemann , a friend of the family, encouraged her to take pictures. The professional photographer L. Reidemeister, with whom she was a close friend, probably helped her with technical questions. The women photographed each other's children. Natascha Artin captured relatives, friends, everyday objects from her apartment and landscapes in pictures. She later traveled through Hamburg with her camera in search of motifs and took photos of the port , Jungfernstieg , Nikolaifleet , Baumwall and the main train station , among others . Architecture was of particular interest. Her pictures weren't looking for the spectacular, she loved simple details, bright, clear lines and was influenced by the reform ideas of Bauhaus architecture . In the 1930s she also brought pictures from trips to Lübeck , Braunschweig and Hildesheim , to Amsterdam , Bruges , Ghent and Copenhagen. She was able to take the photographs and the camera with her when she emigrated to the USA.

As a professional photographer, Natascha Brunswick never understood herself: "It was a private passion," she explained, "but it was also something more than taking pictures."

During the Second World War , Natascha Artin was considered an enemy alien because of her origins . Due to the omnipresent fear of espionage, the police therefore confiscated their camera in 1942. When it was returned to her after years of dustiness, the photographer had lost the joy of taking pictures.

Around forty years later, her son Tom Artin, a jazz musician and photographer, discovered the photos enlarged on baryta paper in a cupboard. He recognized their importance and contacted galleries in Hamburg. The photos were exhibited for the first time in 1999 in the Galerie Kunstgenuss by Petra von Schmude in Hamburg-Eppendorf and met with a great response. The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe presented the 227 original photographs in 2001 in a separate exhibition entitled: Hamburg - As I saw it. Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Despite her old age of 91 at the time, Natascha Brunswick traveled from New York to the exhibition opening. The museum keeps around 230 original prints of the pictures; the negatives are owned by the Artin family.

Web links

Commons : Natascha A. Brunswick  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Brunswick, Natascha A. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 64-66 .
  • Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 .
  • Bettina Salomon: Why these photos have no place in the closet. “Hamburg - as I saw it”  : The Museum of Art and Industry shows historical photos by Natascha Brunswick. Die Welt 17 July 2001.
  • Isabelle Hoffmann: The photographers Natascha Brunswick and Angelika Platen in the MKG “Pictures of Past Times”. Hamburger Morgenpost July 12, 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 . P. 10
  2. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 , p. 12
  3. In memory of Emil Artin. Hamburg University Speeches, New Part 9, p. 31
  4. In memory of Emil Artin. Hamburg University Speeches, New Part 9, p. 30
  5. Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Brunswick, Natascha A. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (ed.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 65 .
  6. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 , pp. 10–11
  7. Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Brunswick, Natascha A. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (ed.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 66 .
  8. Louis Nirenberg: In Memoriam: Natascha Artin Brunswick, Editor Emeritus Homepage of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, July 25, 2006. Retrieved April 28, 2015
  9. Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Brunswick, Natascha A. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (ed.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 66 .
  10. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 . P. 11 and 13
  11. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 . Pp. 13-14
  12. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog editing: Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 . Pp. 13-16
  13. Natascha A. Brunswick, Hamburg - as I saw it: Photographs from the twenties and thirties. Text and catalog Claudia Gabriele Philipp [= Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez], Museum for Art and Industry, Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-923859-51-1 . P. 82 ff.
  14. Bettina Salomon: Why these photos have no place in the closet. “Hamburg - as I saw it”: The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is showing historical recordings by Natascha Brunswick in Die Welt from July 17, 2001
  15. Gabriele Betancourt Nuñez: Brunswick, Natascha A. In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (ed.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 66 .