Elisabeth Jungmann
Encyclopedia
Elisabeth Jungmann (1894 – 28 December 1958) was an interpreter and the secretary, literary executor
and second wife of caricaturist
and parodist
Sir Max Beerbohm
.
A German Jewess
, born in Lublinitz
in Upper Silesia
, the daughter of Adolf and Agnes Jungmann and the sister of Otto Jungmann and sociologist
and historian
Eva Gabriele Reichmann
, she served as a nurse for the German army
during World War I
. Jungmann was the personal secretary and English
interpreter for Gerhart Hauptmann
from 1922 to 1933, and then for Rudolf G. Binding
. Binding had hoped to marry Jungmann but was prevented from doing so by the Nuremberg Laws
.
Jungmann had been a friend of the Beerbohm's since 1927 when she had translated at a meeting between Beerbohm
and Hauptmann
, who wintered in Rapallo
in Italy
. She became a regular visitor to their home, the Villino Chiaro in Rapallo. Because she was a Jew Jungmann left Europe and went to Britain
at the start of World War II
, where she resumed her friendship with the Beerbohm's at their temporary home in Abinger
. During the War Jungmann worked for the Jewish Central Information Office in London as a research assistant. She went on to work for the Political Intelligence Department, a section of the British
Home Office
. After the War she stayed in London, working for the Control Commission for Germany and Austria which was involved in developing the "cultural revival of Germany". Beerbohm wrote a letter to the Aliens Tribunal on her behalf urging her suitability for British citizen
ship. When Jungmann's mother died in 1942 while being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
, Beerbohm wrote a letter of condolence to her.
When the Beerbohm's returned to the Villino Chiaro after the War, Jungmann visited them there every summer.
On the death of his first wife, Florence Kahn
, in 1951, Beerbohm called Jungmann in London. She immediately travelled out to his villa in Rapallo
where she took care of the funeral arrangements. She became Beerbohm's secretary, confidante and carer. Jungmann acted as hostess to Beerbohm's many visitors, including Ezra Pound
, who lived nearby, and Somerset Maugham, John Gielgud
,
Laurence Olivier
and Truman Capote
among others.
Jungmann once told Beerbohm how she would have liked to have met Isaac Newton
, famous for his Law of Gravity
. Beerbohm said that he would not have understood Newton, to which Jungmann replied "He would have liked you." "Yes," Max agreed,"I would have taught him the Law of Levity."
She became Lady Beerbohm when Beerbohm married her privately on his death bed on 20 April 1956 to ensure that under Italian law she would inherit all his possessions. On the death of her husband in May 1956 Jungmann became his literary executor
. After her own death in 1958 her sister Eva Reichmann
became the executor of Max Beerbohm's literary estate.
She was the subject of a biography by Corry Nethery.
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
and second wife of caricaturist
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
and parodist
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
Sir Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
.
A German Jewess
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, born in Lublinitz
Lubliniec
Lubliniec is a town in southern Poland with 29,359 inhabitants . It is the capital of Lubliniec County, part of Silesian Voivodeship ; previously it was in Częstochowa Voivodeship .-Geography:...
in Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
, the daughter of Adolf and Agnes Jungmann and the sister of Otto Jungmann and sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Eva Gabriele Reichmann
Eva Gabriele Reichmann
Eva Gabriele Reichmann was an eminent German historian and sociologist. From 1945 on she became famous for her research on anti-Semitism. Reichmann was Jewish.-Life:...
, she served as a nurse for the German army
German Army
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Jungmann was the personal secretary and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
interpreter for Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
from 1922 to 1933, and then for Rudolf G. Binding
Rudolf G. Binding
Rudolf Georg Binding was a German writer.He was born in Basel, Switzerland and died in Starnberg. He studied medicine and law before joining the Hussars. On the outbreak of the First World War, Binding, who was forty-six years old, became commander of a squadron of dragoons...
. Binding had hoped to marry Jungmann but was prevented from doing so by the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
.
Jungmann had been a friend of the Beerbohm's since 1927 when she had translated at a meeting between Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
and Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
, who wintered in Rapallo
Rapallo
Rapallo is a municipality in the province of Genoa, in Liguria, northern Italy. As of 2007 it counts approximately 34,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Tigullio Gulf and is located in between Portofino and Chiavari....
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She became a regular visitor to their home, the Villino Chiaro in Rapallo. Because she was a Jew Jungmann left Europe and went to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where she resumed her friendship with the Beerbohm's at their temporary home in Abinger
Abinger
Abinger is a civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. It includes the villages of Abinger Hammer, Sutton Abinger, Abinger Common and part of Holmbury St Mary ....
. During the War Jungmann worked for the Jewish Central Information Office in London as a research assistant. She went on to work for the Political Intelligence Department, a section of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
. After the War she stayed in London, working for the Control Commission for Germany and Austria which was involved in developing the "cultural revival of Germany". Beerbohm wrote a letter to the Aliens Tribunal on her behalf urging her suitability for British citizen
British nationality law
British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...
ship. When Jungmann's mother died in 1942 while being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, Beerbohm wrote a letter of condolence to her.
When the Beerbohm's returned to the Villino Chiaro after the War, Jungmann visited them there every summer.
On the death of his first wife, Florence Kahn
Florence Kahn (actress)
Florence Kahn was a Jewish American actress and the first wife of caricaturist and parodist Sir Max Beerbohm.-Acting career:...
, in 1951, Beerbohm called Jungmann in London. She immediately travelled out to his villa in Rapallo
Rapallo
Rapallo is a municipality in the province of Genoa, in Liguria, northern Italy. As of 2007 it counts approximately 34,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Tigullio Gulf and is located in between Portofino and Chiavari....
where she took care of the funeral arrangements. She became Beerbohm's secretary, confidante and carer. Jungmann acted as hostess to Beerbohm's many visitors, including Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, who lived nearby, and Somerset Maugham, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
,
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
and Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
among others.
Jungmann once told Beerbohm how she would have liked to have met Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
, famous for his Law of Gravity
Newton's law of universal gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them...
. Beerbohm said that he would not have understood Newton, to which Jungmann replied "He would have liked you." "Yes," Max agreed,"I would have taught him the Law of Levity."
She became Lady Beerbohm when Beerbohm married her privately on his death bed on 20 April 1956 to ensure that under Italian law she would inherit all his possessions. On the death of her husband in May 1956 Jungmann became his literary executor
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
. After her own death in 1958 her sister Eva Reichmann
Eva Gabriele Reichmann
Eva Gabriele Reichmann was an eminent German historian and sociologist. From 1945 on she became famous for her research on anti-Semitism. Reichmann was Jewish.-Life:...
became the executor of Max Beerbohm's literary estate.
She was the subject of a biography by Corry Nethery.