Sophie Magnus

Michaela Sophie Magnus (born July 30, 1840 in Hamburg as Sophie Isler ; † February 18, 1920 in Braunschweig ) was a German women's rights activist and a manager of women's projects in Braunschweig.

Life

Sophie Magnus was the only child of the librarian and later head of the Hamburg city library Meyer Isler (1807–1888) and his wife Emma Meyer (1816–1886). Sophie Isler was born on ABC-Strasse in Hamburg . Since her father had to pay for his parents as well as his own family, Sophie spent most of her childhood in Deichstrasse, which was in a poor neighborhood. At the age of five she learned to read independently. Then the parents set up a private school in their own house for three years. Sophie then attended Amanda Noack's private girls' school. The school, on the ground floor of which the painter Bernhard Axel Bendixen had a studio for daguerreotypes , was on ABC Street.

Towards the end of Sophie's school days, the Isler family moved to Scholviens Passage, which was between Jungfernstieg and Königstrasse. Since there were no public higher schools for girls at the time, Sophie Magnus took a three-year, privately organized "course" from the age of 14. She then received drawing lessons from Bernhard Mohrhagen . Sophie's Jewish parents were committed to the equality of Jews and Christians in public life and a reform-oriented further development of Judaism. They dealt with issues of the educated middle class and campaigned for the emancipation of women. So they tried to give their daughter a good education: Her father taught her Latin and, in his opinion, led her to the level of upper secondary school. Due to the family's precarious financial situation, the father had to work part-time as a private teacher for years. Sophie Isler received an education that was typical of girls' education at that time.

Sophie Isler later wrote the “Childhood Memories” about her time in Hamburg. The unpublished work is in the private archive of the estate of Magnus-Lilien-Peters in Poschiavo, Switzerland . They offer a realistic picture of everyday life in Hamburg around 1850.

In 1867 Sophie Isler married the lawyer Otto Magnus (1836–1920) and moved to Braunschweig with him. The couple had children Rudolf (1873–1927) and Helene (1880–1972). The daughter later married the artist Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874–1925). Sophie Magnus maintained written contact with her parents in Hamburg for more than twenty years. These extensive, unpublished letters are a suitable source for the cultural history of this period. The originals are under "Familienarchiv Isler / Magnus / Lilien - P23" in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem / Israel (CAHJP), and a transcription is in the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg.

Work in Braunschweig

EM Lilien : "Portrait of the mother-in-law" ( etching from 1909)

Sophie Magnus worked in several social women's projects in Braunschweig. She received suggestions from her friend Anna Wohlwill and Hamburg women's clubs. Following the examples there, Magnus was one of the founders of an educational association in 1871, where she worked as a board member and cashier. The association campaigned for reforms in the school system and raising children. In 1872 he set up a child protection association, which Sophie's sister-in-law Bertha Magnus led. Sophie Magnus played a significant role in the work of the Child Protection Association. She also got involved in the Braunschweig Volksküche. It appears that the rise in anti-Semitism of the late 1870s had no effect on their work. In 1888 she was appointed to the board of the newly founded "Mägdeherberge" as an alibi Jew. What she then did until the end of her life is unknown.

Sophie Magnus is buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Hamburger Strasse with her husband Otto Magnus, who died just a few days after her on February 29, 1920.

literature

• Reinhard Bein : You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). (= Messages from the Braunschweig City Archives , No. 1). Döring Druck, Braunschweig 2009, ISBN 978-3-925268-30-4 , pp. 429-431.
• Martina Herrmann: Magnus, Sophie . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 245 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). , P. 429.
2. ↑ Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). , P. 431.