Gertrud Kolmar
Encyclopedia
Gertrud Käthe Chodziesner (10 December 1894–March 1943), known by the literary pseudonym
Gertrud Kolmar, was a German lyric
poet
and writer. She was born in Berlin
and died, after her arrest and deportation
as a Jew, in Auschwitz
, a victim of the Nazi Final Solution
. Though she was a cousin of Walter Benjamin
, little is known of her life. She is considered one of the finest poets in the German language
.
Gertrud Kolmar came from an assimilated middle-class German Jewish family. Her father, Ludwig
Chodziesner, was a criminal defense lawyer
. Her mother Elise's maiden name was Schoenflies. She grew up in Berlin's Charlottenburg
quarter, in the present-day Berlin-Westend, and was educated in several private school
s, the last one being a women's agricultural and home economics
college at Elbisbach near Leipzig
. While active as a kindergarten
teacher, she learnt Russian
and completed a course in 1915/1916 for language teachers in Berlin, graduating with a diploma
in English
and French
. At about this time she had a brief affair with an army officer, Karl Jodel, which ended with an abortion
, which her parents insisted on her having. During the last two years of World War I
she was also employed as an interpreter and censor
of soldiers' correspondence in a prisoner-of-war camp
in Döberitz, near Berlin.
In 1917 her first book, simply titled 'Poems', (Gedichte) appeared, under the pseudonym of Gertrud Kolmar, Kolmar being the German name for the village of Chodzież
in the former Prussia
n province of Posen
from which her family came. After the war, she worked as a governess
for several families in Berlin, and briefly, in 1927, in Hamburg
, as a teacher of the handicapped. In that same year she undertook a study trip to France, staying in Paris
and Dijon
, where she trained to be an interpreter. In 1928, she returned to her family home after her mother's health deteriorated in order to look after the household. Upon her mother's death in March 1930, she worked as her father's secretary
.
In the late 1920s her poems began to appear in various literary journals and anthologies. Her third volume, Die Frau und die Tiere came out under a Jewish publisher's imprint in August 1938 but was pulped after the Kristallnacht
pogrom
in November of that year. The Chodziesner family, as a result of the intensification of the persecution of Jews under National Socialism, had to sell its house in the Berlin suburb of Finkenkrug, which, to Kolmar's imagination became her 'lost paradise' (das verlorene Paradies), and was constrained to take over a floor in an apartment block called 'Jewshome' (Judenhaus) in the Berlin suburb of Schöneberg
.
From July 1941 she was ordered to work in a forced labour corvée
in the German armaments industry
. Her father was deported in September 1942 to Theresienstadt where he died in February 1943. Gertrud Kolmar was arrested in the course of a factory raid on the 27th of February 1943, and transported on the 2nd of March to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Though the date and circumstances of her death are not known, she was apparently murdered shortly after her arrival.
withheld judgement on the latter affirmation on the grounds he was not sufficiently competent to judge, but agreed with Picard's high estimation of her as a master poet in the German lyrical canon.. Patrick Bridgwater, citing the great range of her imagery and verse forms, and the passionate integrity which runs through her work, likewise writes that she was 'one of the great poets of her time, and perhaps the greatest woman poet ever to have written in German'.
English translation
Italian translation
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Gertrud Kolmar, was a German lyric
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and writer. She was born in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and died, after her arrest and deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
as a Jew, in Auschwitz
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...
, a victim of the Nazi Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
. Though she was a cousin of Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
, little is known of her life. She is considered one of the finest poets in the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
Life
Chodziesner, was a criminal defense lawyer
Criminal defense lawyer
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal conduct. Criminal defense lawyers can be permanently employed by the various jurisdictions with criminal courts. Such lawyers are often called public defenders. For a much more...
. Her mother Elise's maiden name was Schoenflies. She grew up in Berlin's Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
quarter, in the present-day Berlin-Westend, and was educated in several private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
s, the last one being a women's agricultural and home economics
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
college at Elbisbach near Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. While active as a kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
teacher, she learnt Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and completed a course in 1915/1916 for language teachers in Berlin, graduating with a diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
in 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...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. At about this time she had a brief affair with an army officer, Karl Jodel, which ended with an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, which her parents insisted on her having. During the last two years of 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...
she was also employed as an interpreter and censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of soldiers' correspondence in a prisoner-of-war camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
in Döberitz, near Berlin.
In 1917 her first book, simply titled 'Poems', (Gedichte) appeared, under the pseudonym of Gertrud Kolmar, Kolmar being the German name for the village of Chodzież
Chodziez
Chodzież is a town in northwestern Poland with 20,400 inhabitants . Situated in the Chodzież County, Greater Poland Voivodeship , previously in Piła Voivodeship .-Geography:...
in the former Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n province of Posen
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
from which her family came. After the war, she worked as a governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
for several families in Berlin, and briefly, in 1927, in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, as a teacher of the handicapped. In that same year she undertook a study trip to France, staying in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, where she trained to be an interpreter. In 1928, she returned to her family home after her mother's health deteriorated in order to look after the household. Upon her mother's death in March 1930, she worked as her father's secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
.
In the late 1920s her poems began to appear in various literary journals and anthologies. Her third volume, Die Frau und die Tiere came out under a Jewish publisher's imprint in August 1938 but was pulped after the Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
in November of that year. The Chodziesner family, as a result of the intensification of the persecution of Jews under National Socialism, had to sell its house in the Berlin suburb of Finkenkrug, which, to Kolmar's imagination became her 'lost paradise' (das verlorene Paradies), and was constrained to take over a floor in an apartment block called 'Jewshome' (Judenhaus) in the Berlin suburb of Schöneberg
Schöneberg
Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....
.
From July 1941 she was ordered to work in a forced labour corvée
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
in the German armaments industry
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
. Her father was deported in September 1942 to Theresienstadt where he died in February 1943. Gertrud Kolmar was arrested in the course of a factory raid on the 27th of February 1943, and transported on the 2nd of March to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Though the date and circumstances of her death are not known, she was apparently murdered shortly after her arrival.
Literary Standing
Post-war critics have accorded Kolmar a very high place in literature. Jacob Picard, in his epilogue to Gertrud Kolmar: Das Lyrische Werk described her both as 'one of the most important woman poets' in the whole of German literature, and 'the greatest lyrical poetess of Jewish descent who has ever lived'. Michael HamburgerMichael Hamburger
Michael Hamburger OBE was a noted British translator, poet, critic, memoirist, and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and W. G. Sebald from German, and his work in literary criticism...
withheld judgement on the latter affirmation on the grounds he was not sufficiently competent to judge, but agreed with Picard's high estimation of her as a master poet in the German lyrical canon.. Patrick Bridgwater, citing the great range of her imagery and verse forms, and the passionate integrity which runs through her work, likewise writes that she was 'one of the great poets of her time, and perhaps the greatest woman poet ever to have written in German'.
Posthumous Honours
On the 24 February 1993, a plaque in her honour was placed at Haus Ahornallee 37, in Berlin's Charlottenburg suburb. A street in Berlin also bears her name.Works
Original language- Gedichte, Berlin 1917
- Preußische Wappen, Berlin 1934
- Die Frau und die Tiere, Berlin 1938
- Welten, Berlin 1947
- Das lyrische Werk, Heidelberg [and others] 1955
- Das lyrische Werk, Munich 1960
- Eine Mutter, Munich 1965
- Die Kerze von Arras. Ausgewählte Gedichte. Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau-Verl., 1968
- Briefe an die Schwester Hilde, Munich 1970
- Das Wort der Stummen. Nachgelassene Gedichte, edited, and with an afterword by Uwe Berger and Erinnerungen an Gertrud Kolmar (Memories of Gertrude Kolmar) by Hilde BenjaminHilde BenjaminHilde Benjamin was an East German judge and Minister of Justice. She is best known for presiding over a series of political show trials in the 1950s....
, Berlin: Buchverl. Der Morgen, 1978 - Susanna, Frankfurt am Main, 1993; on 2 CDs, Berlin: Herzrasen Records, 2006
- Nacht, Verona 1994
- Briefe, Göttingen 1997
English translation
- Dark Soliloquy: the Selected Poems of Gertrud Kolmar, Translated with an Introduction by Henry A. Smith. Foreword Cynthia OzickCynthia OzickCynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...
. Seabury Press,, NY, 1975 ISBN 978 0816491995 or ISBN 0816491992 - A Jewish Mother from Berlin: A Novel; Susanna: A Novella, tr. Brigitte Goldstein. New York, London: Holmes & Meier, 1997. ISBN 978-0841913455
- My Gaze Is Turned Inward: Letters 1934-1943 (Jewish Lives), ed. Johanna Woltmann, tr. Brigitte Goldstein. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0810118546
Italian translation
- Gertrud Kolmar, poesie traduzione e nota introduttiva a c. di Maura Del Serra, in "Poesia",n° 28, 1990, pp. 37-43
External links
- Collection of links to biographies and other information about Gertrude Kolmar at the library of the Free University of BerlinFree University of BerlinFreie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...
- Krick-Aigner, Kirsten. "Gertrud Kolmar." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive