Ida Friederike Görres
Encyclopedia
Ida Friederike Görres born Elisabeth Friederike, Reichsgräfin Coudenhove-Kalergi was a Czech-Austrian writer. From the Coudenhove-Kalergi
family, she was the daughter, one of seven children, of Count Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi
and his Japanese wife Mitsuko Aoyama
.
After her father's early death, she was brought up in his Bohemia
n home, Schloss Ronsperg, in accordance with the Anglophile ideas of the time, and so, in view of the fact that her mother was an invalid, doubly in the hands of nurses and governesses. A convent education led to the Mary Ward Institute in St Polten, near Vienna, and Countess Ida entered a novitiate in 1923. Doubting her vocation however, she took up lay work and was soon deeply involved in the German Youth Movement
. She graduated from the Social Women's School in Freiburg where she studied church history. In 1928 she went as a youth ministry secretary for girls to Dresden and worked in Catholic education. In 1935, she married engineer Carl-Josef Gorres in Leipzig. She continued with her Youth Movement activities, until the Second World War strangled most of these activities.
(Later Görres wrote: " The German Youth Movement was an extremely elusive, short-lived phenomenon..The units of the Movement, or rather Movements, called themselves Bünde - leagues , confederations...The Youth Movement began quite inconspicuously: a band of secondary schoolboys in Berlin, bored to death by their homes and schools and grown-ups in general, sought to elude this adult world by spending their Sundays and holidays roaming the countryside - hiking, an unheard of pursuit in those days...Hiking became symbolic, standing for Back to Nature against modern civilization; the free lance spirit as against gregariousness, yet , paradoxically, the urge for comradeship against atomizing individualism..The idea was to create a Jugendreich, a Realm of Youth between childhood and what they considered corrupt and warped adult life..The main Catholic branch Quickborn made Burg Rothenfels
on the Main its centre, with Romano Guardini
as our leading mind. In 1933 the Nazis swallowed up the groups on the nationalistic fringe and shattered the bulk of the Bünde as bulwarks of the independent spirit. Many of the Resistance martyrs came from their ranks, Fr Delp, S.J.
, for instance, and the undergraduate brother and sister, Hans Scholl
and Sophie Scholl
, who were beheaded in 1943....But the Movement had really petered out much earlier...Many of its members entered the teaching profession or turned to educational and welfare work or the arts..a small but by no means negligible minority did receive a basic shaping and moulding which held good for the rest of their lives; a special kind of awareness to Nature; an extremely keen sense of intellectual and spiritual responsibility and a peculiar sanity and sobriety of judgment." Görres writing in the Appendix to Broken Lights .)
Görres was active as a writer and wrote on various topics on hagiography. After the war she began once again to write, travel and lecture, until in 1950 a breakdown in health drove her into seclusion . (Broken Lights, Diaries and Letters 1951 -1959 gather her writings from this time in an English volume). She participated in the Würzburg synod and died after a synod meeting in Frankfurt. The Requiem was held in Freiburg Cathedral, the eulogy given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. She was loyal to the tradition of Catholic Christianity. " I have known no other father but these fathers, the priests of the Church, no brothers but my own dear brothers, the theology students. No mother but the Church...I loved them all and clung to them, not only as a daughter and sister, but as a Japanese daughter and sister, in the intensity of unconditional submission which belongs to Japanese filial piety. "
She is best known in the English speaking world for her 1944 study of Thérèse of Lisieux Das Verborgene Antlitz - translated as The Hidden Face
. The British cookery writer/celebrity chef
, Delia Smith
named the book as an influence on her Roman Catholicism.
Coudenhove-Kalergi
Coudenhove-Kalergi is a noble Bohemian family of mixed European descent formed when Franz Karl Coudenhove married Maria Kalergi . The Coudenhoves had been Reichsgrafs since 1790 and rose to great estate in The Netherlands and Belgium. After the upheaval of the French Revolution they followed...
family, she was the daughter, one of seven children, of Count Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi
Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi
Heinrich Johann Maria von Coudenhove-Kalergi , also known as Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi and until 1903 Graf von Coudenhove, was an Austrian traveller and diplomat of the Coudenhove-Kalergi family. He was born in Vienna and died in Poběžovice...
and his Japanese wife Mitsuko Aoyama
Mitsuko Aoyama
Mitsuko, Countess of Coudenhove-Kalergi , formerly known as , was one of the first Japanese people to emigrate to Europe, after becoming the wife of an Austrian diplomat, Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, in Tokyo...
.
After her father's early death, she was brought up in his Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n home, Schloss Ronsperg, in accordance with the Anglophile ideas of the time, and so, in view of the fact that her mother was an invalid, doubly in the hands of nurses and governesses. A convent education led to the Mary Ward Institute in St Polten, near Vienna, and Countess Ida entered a novitiate in 1923. Doubting her vocation however, she took up lay work and was soon deeply involved in the German Youth Movement
German Youth Movement
The German Youth Movement is a collective term for a cultural and educational movement that started in 1896. It consists of numerous associations of young people that focus on outdoor activities. The movement included German Scouting and the Wandervogel...
. She graduated from the Social Women's School in Freiburg where she studied church history. In 1928 she went as a youth ministry secretary for girls to Dresden and worked in Catholic education. In 1935, she married engineer Carl-Josef Gorres in Leipzig. She continued with her Youth Movement activities, until the Second World War strangled most of these activities.
(Later Görres wrote: " The German Youth Movement was an extremely elusive, short-lived phenomenon..The units of the Movement, or rather Movements, called themselves Bünde - leagues , confederations...The Youth Movement began quite inconspicuously: a band of secondary schoolboys in Berlin, bored to death by their homes and schools and grown-ups in general, sought to elude this adult world by spending their Sundays and holidays roaming the countryside - hiking, an unheard of pursuit in those days...Hiking became symbolic, standing for Back to Nature against modern civilization; the free lance spirit as against gregariousness, yet , paradoxically, the urge for comradeship against atomizing individualism..The idea was to create a Jugendreich, a Realm of Youth between childhood and what they considered corrupt and warped adult life..The main Catholic branch Quickborn made Burg Rothenfels
Rothenfels
Rothenfels is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and a member of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft of Marktheidenfeld...
on the Main its centre, with Romano Guardini
Romano Guardini
Romano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century.- Life and work:...
as our leading mind. In 1933 the Nazis swallowed up the groups on the nationalistic fringe and shattered the bulk of the Bünde as bulwarks of the independent spirit. Many of the Resistance martyrs came from their ranks, Fr Delp, S.J.
Alfred Delp
Alfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest who was executed for his resistance to the Nazi régime in Germany.- Early life and education :...
, for instance, and the undergraduate brother and sister, Hans Scholl
Hans Scholl
Hans Fritz Scholl was a founding member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany.-Biography:...
and Sophie Scholl
Sophie Scholl
Sophia Magdalena Scholl was a German student, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich with her brother Hans...
, who were beheaded in 1943....But the Movement had really petered out much earlier...Many of its members entered the teaching profession or turned to educational and welfare work or the arts..a small but by no means negligible minority did receive a basic shaping and moulding which held good for the rest of their lives; a special kind of awareness to Nature; an extremely keen sense of intellectual and spiritual responsibility and a peculiar sanity and sobriety of judgment." Görres writing in the Appendix to Broken Lights .)
Görres was active as a writer and wrote on various topics on hagiography. After the war she began once again to write, travel and lecture, until in 1950 a breakdown in health drove her into seclusion . (Broken Lights, Diaries and Letters 1951 -1959 gather her writings from this time in an English volume). She participated in the Würzburg synod and died after a synod meeting in Frankfurt. The Requiem was held in Freiburg Cathedral, the eulogy given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. She was loyal to the tradition of Catholic Christianity. " I have known no other father but these fathers, the priests of the Church, no brothers but my own dear brothers, the theology students. No mother but the Church...I loved them all and clung to them, not only as a daughter and sister, but as a Japanese daughter and sister, in the intensity of unconditional submission which belongs to Japanese filial piety. "
She is best known in the English speaking world for her 1944 study of Thérèse of Lisieux Das Verborgene Antlitz - translated as The Hidden Face
The Hidden Face (book)
The Hidden Face is a book on St. Thérèse of Lisieux by the German author Ida Friederike Görres. Originally written in German in 1944 as Das Verborgene Antlitz it is considered the most important work by Görres.-Background:...
. The British cookery writer/celebrity chef
Celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...
, Delia Smith
Delia Smith
Delia Smith CBE is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold....
named the book as an influence on her Roman Catholicism.