Sophia Goudstikker

Sophia N. Goudstikker, detail from a group photo, around 1894

Facade of the Elvira court studio in Munich

Sophia N. Goudstikker (born January 15, 1865 in Rotterdam ; † March 21, 1924 in Munich ) was a photographer , entrepreneur and women's rights activist of Dutch origin who worked in Germany .

Youth, Education and Life

Sophia Goudstikker was the daughter of the Amsterdam art and antiques dealer Salomon Elias Goudstikker and his wife Grietje, née Klisser. The family moved to Hamburg at the end of 1865, and then to Dresden in 1879, where Sophia was trained in Amalie Augspurg's painting school from the mid-1880s. There she met her sister, who later became women's rights activist Anita Augspurg .

A close connection developed between Goudstikker and Augspurg, who was seven years older than him. In 1886 the two women decided to move to Munich together, to be trained as photographers and to set up a photo studio. The Elvira Atelier was opened on July 13, 1887.

In 1898 Goudstikker converted from Judaism to Protestantism . In the same year she acquired Bavarian citizenship and the citizenship of the city of Munich. There were also changes privately: Goudstikker and Augspurg separated around 1899; From then on, Goudstikker lived with the women's rights activist Ika Freudenberg .

In 1908 Goudstikker withdrew from professional photography in order to devote himself more to work in the women's movement. In 1912, her partner Ika Freudenberg died of breast cancer . In the 1920s it became quieter around Sophia Goudstikker; she died in March 1924 after a serious illness.

Suffragette

In addition to her work as a photographer, Sophia Goudstikker campaigned for women's rights, initially together with Anita Augspurg and later with Ika Freudenberg. As early as 1894, Goudstikker and Freudenberg founded the Society for the Promotion of Intellectual Interests of Women , which later became the Association for Women's Interests , which organized the first Bavarian Women's Day in Munich in 1899.

Goudstikker was the chairwoman of the legal information office for women she founded in Munich. She represented defenseless women in court and earned respect for her work in the population as well as in professional circles. Although she had never studied law, in 1908 she was the first woman to be admitted to the Munich youth and lay judiciary courts. From 1912 she worked with one of the first German lawyers, Marie Munk , in her legal protection office. However, both women parted ways at the end of 1914.

Goudstikker's circle of friends and work environment also included prominent activists such as Helene Stöcker and Gertrud Bäumer , as well as numerous writers, including Ricarda Huch and Lou Andreas-Salomé .

Entrepreneur and bohemian from Munich

In 1887 Sophia Goudstikker opened the Elvira studio (later: Hof-Atelier) in Munich together with Anita Augspurg. It was one of the first women-run companies in the German Reich. Goudstikker and Augspurg were prominent figures of the Munich bohemians of their time with their short-cut hair, inappropriate clothing and their open commitment to the necessity of a liberation struggle for bourgeois women and their barely hidden homoerotic habitus . The business soon became the leading "court photography institute" and a social meeting place, where customers included well-known writers such as Thomas Mann and Heinrich Mann as well as members of the Bavarian royal family. Initially, the company was based in Kaulbachstrasse ; Around 1900 Goudstikker moved into a new building designed by the architect August Endell on Von-der-Tann-Straße, at the corner of Königinstraße .

Augspurg remained economically involved in the company for several years; However, the paths of the two women had meanwhile separated. In 1908 Goudstikker, the sole owner after Augspurg's withdrawal from the business, finally handed over the Elvira studio to the photographer Emma Pförtner-Uibleisen , but stayed with Ika Freudenberg in the adjoining house at 3 Königinstraße. In her memoirs, Berlin women's rights activist Gertrud Bäumer, who is particularly close friend of Ika Freudenberg, describes this “strange little gray-green house” as a lively, inspiring meeting place for “strong [...], lively [...] people who seek access to wealthier and wanted to pave the way for a freer existence. "

The writer Ernst von Wolhaben , who was also friends with Goudstikker and Freudenberg, created a biting and ironic memorial to women and their friends in his satire The Third Sex (1899).

literature

• Oda Cordes: Marie Munk (1885–1978). Life and work . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2015, pp. 89–93, p. 830.
• Rudolf Herz, Brigitte Bruns (ed.): Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928. Aesthetes, emanciers, aristocrats. (Exhibition catalog of the Münchner Stadtmuseum) Munich 1985.
• Ingvild Richardsen : »Passionate hearts, fiery souls«. How women changed the world . Frankfurt / M .: S. Fischer, 2019, pp. 22–25, 139–141, 206–208, ISBN 978-3-10-397457-7

Web links

Commons : Atelier Elvira  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "According to the police registration form in the Munich City Archives, Sophia Goudstikker was born in Rotterdam, not Amsterdam, as is always claimed everywhere" (quoted from Ingvild Richardsen: "Passionate hearts, fiery souls". How women changed the world . Frankfurt / M .: S. Fischer, 2019, p. 284, note 16)
2. ^ Rudolf Herz: The Elvira Photo Studio (1887-1928). His photographers, his customers, his pictures , in Rudolf Herz, Brigitte Bruns (Ed.): Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928. Ästheten, Emanzen, Aristokrats , Munich 1985, pp. 63–128.
3. ↑ Gertrud Bäumer: Life through a turning point . Rainer Wunderlich Verlag, Tübingen 1933, p. 182 f.
4. ↑ Brigitte Bruns: The third generation of Ernst von Woliehen , in Rudolf Herz, Brigitte Bruns (Ed.): Hof-Atelier Elvira 1887–1928. Ästheten, Emanzen, Aristokrats, Munich 1985, pp. 171–190.