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Discovering Women's History brings to light the work of a selection of German-speaking women journalists from the first half of the twentieth century who made significant contributions to German life and culture, yet are barely known today. The volume builds upon scholarship on women and culture by focusing on individual journalists who published both within and outside the periodicals of women's organizations and women's magazines, thus offering a sampling of the vastly different perspectives of German-speaking women journalists during this period. The contributors to the volume aim to raise awareness regarding the great range of viewpoints represented by women journalists as well as challenging gender-based stereotypes of women's writing that have traditionally tended to simplify the complexities of women's diverse experiences. The volume closes with Erika Mann's autobiographical fragment 'I, of all People' published here for the first time in the original English.
List of contents
Contents: Godela Weiss-Sussex: Radical Feminist and Belligerent Journalist. Grete Meisel-Hess (1879-1922) - Christa Spreizer: In Search of the Überweib. The Journalism of Elsa Asenijeff (1867-1941) - Christa Spreizer: 'Das Erwachen der Frau'. Eliza Ichenhaeuser (1869-1932) and the First Wave of German Feminism - Lisa Marie Anderson: The 'Meisterin des deutenden Essais'. Margarete Susman (1872-1966) on the First World War and the November Revolution - Kerry Wallach: Front-Page Jews. Doris Wittner's (1880-1937) Berlin Feuilletons - Beth Ann Muellner: Roving Reporter, Travel Journalist, Storyteller. Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) - Elke Nicolai: She of All People. The Journalist Erika Mann (1905-1969) - Jana Mikota: Journalistic Production of the New Woman. Vicki Baum (1888-1960) and Gina Kaus (1893-1985) - Jana Mikota: Proletarian Literature and the Woman Question. The Journalism of Alice Rühle-Gerstel (1894-1943) during the Weimar Republic - Julian Preece: The Literary Interventions of a Radical Writer Journalist. Maria Leitner (1892-1942) - Frances Mossop: Writing the City. The Berlin of Gabriele Tergit (1894-1982) - Lynne Tatlock: 'Our Correspondent in Weimar'. Gabriele Reuter (1859-1941) and The New York Times - Deborah Barton: 'Soft' Propaganda for Germany? The Writings of Ursula von Kardorff (1911-1988) - Erika Mann: Appendix. I, of All People.
About the author
Christa Spreizer is Associate Professor of German in the Department of European Languages & Literatures at Queens College of The City University of New York. Her research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century German literature and culture.
Report
«There is a wealth of detail in this collection, and much to discover. It is an important addition to the Women in German Literature series edited by Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly, and a fascinating contribution to European press history. Its most significant value lies in restoring these women journalists to the light of historical knowledge.»
(European Journal of Communication, Vol. 30(1), 2015)
«This volume will be of particular use and interest to anyone working in the area of women's writing, the popular press or the literary and cultural history of the early twentieth century.»
