Heinrich Eduard Jacob
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Eduard Jacob was a German and American journalist and author. Born to a Jewish family in Berlin
and raised partly in Vienna
, Jacob worked for two decades as a journalist and biographer before the rise to power of the Nazi Party. Interned in the late 1930s in the concentration camps at Dachau
and then Buchenwald, he was released through the efforts of his future wife Dora, and emigrated to the United States. There he continued to publish books and contribute to newspapers before returning to Europe after the Second World War. Ill health, aggravated by his experiences in the camps, dogged him in later life, but he continued to publish through to the end of the 1950s. He wrote also under the pen names Henry E. Jacob and Eric Jens Petersen.
, a district of Berlin
, the son of bank director and newspaper publisher Richard Jacob (1847 - 1899) and his wife Martha (née Behrendt), the daughter of a landed family. The couple divorced in 1895 and Martha was remarried, to the Viennese banker Edmund Lampl, in the same year.
schools in Berlin and Vienna, obtaining his Abitur
school-leaver's qualification from the Ascanian highschool in Berlin, under the tutelage of the noted philosopher Otto Friedrich Gruppe
. He enrolled at the Frederick William University (today the Humboldt University of Berlin
) to study literature, history, music, and Germanistics. At college he became friends with the Expressionist
Georg Heym
, and gained his first journalistic job - as a theatre critic for the Deutschen Montagszeitung.
propaganda
films were promoted. Jacob reproduced the experience later in his novel Blut und Zelluloid. During the period he earned a reputation as a talented and prolific author, publishing in fields as diverse as news journalism, biography (especially of German composers), dramatic works, fiction, and cultural history.
of the Nazi Party and the promulgation of laws restricting the freedoms of Jews, Jacob lost his job as a journalist at the Berliner Tageblatt
in March 1933. He sought now to make a living as a freelance writer in Vienna, concentrating his efforts on biographies and non-fiction. At the 11th international congress of the literary organization P.E.N.
, held in Dubrovnik
, Jacob joined fellow writers Raoul Auernheimer
and Paul Frischaue in vocal opposition to Nazism, and contributed to the fracturing of the Austrian chapter of P.E.N. His books were banned under the Nazi regime, but remained in print via Swiss and Dutch exile publishers.
Following the annexation of Austria
, Jacob was arrested on 22 March 1938. All of his belongings - including his library and private correspondence - were confiscated, and Jacob was included in the first so-called "celebrity transport" of prisoners to the concentration camp at Dachau
. He remained there until 23 September 1938, when he was transferred to Buchenwald.
Jacob's future wife, Dora Angel-Soyka, succeeded through the exercise of extraordinary effort in having Jacob released from Buchenwald. The sister of the Austrian poet Ernest Angel, and former wife of the writer Otto Soyka, she enlisted the help of Jacob's American uncle Michael J. Barnes in securing his release on 10 January 1939. Jacob and Angel-Soyka were married on 18 February 1939 and immediately left Germany, via the United Kingdom, for New York.
and to the New York Times. He published further works of non-fiction, now in English, and gained American citizenship on 28 February 1945. Following the end of the war he returned to Europe in summer 1953, but did not settle permanently, moving frequently between hotels and boarding-houses with his wife. His health, severely damaged by his internment, declined, and from 1959 he produced no further literary works.
Jacob died in 1967 and is buried, with his wife, in a Jewish cemetery in Berlin.
Jens-Erik Hohmann argued in a 2006 monograph on Jacob that the author's career represents a component of the history of Germany as a whole - as an account of a human and an artist attempting both to survive and remain part of the thread of history in a turbulent time.
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 raised partly in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Jacob worked for two decades as a journalist and biographer before the rise to power of the Nazi Party. Interned in the late 1930s in the concentration camps at Dachau
Dachau
Dachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
and then Buchenwald, he was released through the efforts of his future wife Dora, and emigrated to the United States. There he continued to publish books and contribute to newspapers before returning to Europe after the Second World War. Ill health, aggravated by his experiences in the camps, dogged him in later life, but he continued to publish through to the end of the 1950s. He wrote also under the pen names Henry E. Jacob and Eric Jens Petersen.
Early life
Jacob, originally named Henry Edward Jacob, was born in FriedrichstadtFriedrichstadt (Berlin)
Friedrichstadt was an independent suburb of Berlin, and is now a historical neighborhood of the city itself. The neighborhood is named after the Prussian king Frederick I.-Geography:...
, a district of 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...
, the son of bank director and newspaper publisher Richard Jacob (1847 - 1899) and his wife Martha (née Behrendt), the daughter of a landed family. The couple divorced in 1895 and Martha was remarried, to the Viennese banker Edmund Lampl, in the same year.
Youth, education, and first job
Jacob was raised alongside his older brother Robert (1883 - 1924) and younger half-sister Alice Lampl (1898 - 1938) in an intellectual German-Jewish household. Jacob attended GymnasiumGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
schools in Berlin and Vienna, obtaining his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
school-leaver's qualification from the Ascanian highschool in Berlin, under the tutelage of the noted philosopher Otto Friedrich Gruppe
Otto Friedrich Gruppe
Otto Friedrich Gruppe was a metaphysical German philosopher, scholar-poet and philologist who served as secretary of the Preussische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Poems by Gruppe were set by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Karl Löwe, and Franz Schreker...
. He enrolled at the Frederick William University (today the Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
) to study literature, history, music, and Germanistics. At college he became friends with the Expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
Georg Heym
Georg Heym
Georg Heym was a German writer. He is particularly known for his poetry, representative of early Expressionism.- Life :...
, and gained his first journalistic job - as a theatre critic for the Deutschen Montagszeitung.
Weimar Republic
For twenty years Jacob worked as a journalist and feature writer, also publishing a number of novels, short story collections, and plays. In September and October 1926 he served as a delegate to the International Film Congress in Paris, an event at which a number of anti-SemiticAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
films were promoted. Jacob reproduced the experience later in his novel Blut und Zelluloid. During the period he earned a reputation as a talented and prolific author, publishing in fields as diverse as news journalism, biography (especially of German composers), dramatic works, fiction, and cultural history.
Third Reich, concentration camps, and emigration
Following the rise to powerMachtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
of the Nazi Party and the promulgation of laws restricting the freedoms of Jews, Jacob lost his job as a journalist at the Berliner Tageblatt
Berliner Tageblatt
The Berliner Tageblatt or BT was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Along with the Frankfurter Zeitung, it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.-History:...
in March 1933. He sought now to make a living as a freelance writer in Vienna, concentrating his efforts on biographies and non-fiction. At the 11th international congress of the literary organization P.E.N.
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, held in Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, Jacob joined fellow writers Raoul Auernheimer
Raoul Auernheimer
Raoul Auernheimer was an Austrian jurist and writer.Auernheimer was the son of German businessman Johann Wilhelm Auernheimer and his Hungarian wife Charlotte "Jenny" Büchler. After receiving his Abitur, Auernheimer began to study law at the university in his hometown...
and Paul Frischaue in vocal opposition to Nazism, and contributed to the fracturing of the Austrian chapter of P.E.N. His books were banned under the Nazi regime, but remained in print via Swiss and Dutch exile publishers.
Following the annexation of Austria
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, Jacob was arrested on 22 March 1938. All of his belongings - including his library and private correspondence - were confiscated, and Jacob was included in the first so-called "celebrity transport" of prisoners to the concentration camp at Dachau
Dachau
Dachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
. He remained there until 23 September 1938, when he was transferred to Buchenwald.
Jacob's future wife, Dora Angel-Soyka, succeeded through the exercise of extraordinary effort in having Jacob released from Buchenwald. The sister of the Austrian poet Ernest Angel, and former wife of the writer Otto Soyka, she enlisted the help of Jacob's American uncle Michael J. Barnes in securing his release on 10 January 1939. Jacob and Angel-Soyka were married on 18 February 1939 and immediately left Germany, via the United Kingdom, for New York.
US, return to Germany, and death
In the United States Jacob resumed his writing career, contributing both to German-language periodicals including the Jewish weekly AufbauAufbau
Aufbau is a journal for German-speaking Jews around the globe. It was founded in 1934 and is a member of Internationale Medienhilfe . Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, and Stefan Zweig wrote for the publication. Until 2004 it was published in New York...
and to the New York Times. He published further works of non-fiction, now in English, and gained American citizenship on 28 February 1945. Following the end of the war he returned to Europe in summer 1953, but did not settle permanently, moving frequently between hotels and boarding-houses with his wife. His health, severely damaged by his internment, declined, and from 1959 he produced no further literary works.
Jacob died in 1967 and is buried, with his wife, in a Jewish cemetery in Berlin.
Critical reception
Jacob's work is the subject of analyses and criticism by a number of scholars of literary history. Writing in 2005, Isolde Mozer identified a mystical thread in his work despite its modernity. He characterized Jacob's thematic use of Kabbalist elements as an effort to find a solution to the crisis of modernity.Jens-Erik Hohmann argued in a 2006 monograph on Jacob that the author's career represents a component of the history of Germany as a whole - as an account of a human and an artist attempting both to survive and remain part of the thread of history in a turbulent time.
External links
- Heinrich Eduard Jacob.de (in German)