Элизабет Ланггэссер: Өмір және шығармашылық тағдыры

German lyricist, prosaist, and short story writer

Elisabeth Langgässer (23 February 1899 – 25 July 1950) was a German author and teacher. She is known for lyrical poetry and novels. Her short story Saisonbeginn, for example, provides a graphically human portrayal of a 1930s German Alpine village erecting a sign forbidding the entry of Jews.

In 1899 Langgässer was born in Alzey into a middle class Catholic family. In 1922 Langgässer became a school teacher. Following an affair with Hermann Heller she gave birth to her illegitimate daughter Cordelia in 1929. As a consequence she was sacked from her teaching position.

From 1924 onwards Langgässer published poetry and reviews. After losing her employment as a teacher she devoted herself to a literary career.

Langgässer became a member of the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Chamber of Literature). In 1935 Langgässer married Wilhelm Hoffman and together they had three daughters. Langgässer was classified as a "half Jew" due to Jewish relations on her father's side of the family. Ultimately the marriage to Hoffman saved Langgässer from deportation. However, her daughter, Cordelia, whose father was a prominent Jew, was deported aged 15. Cordelia was deported to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz in 1944. Cordelia survived following an exchange of camp inmates with German prisoners in Sweden. Langgässer's letters were republished by her granddaughter Elisabeth Hoffmann, the daughter of Cordelia, in 1990. The letters give an insight into the effects the Nuremberg Laws on her family and cover the period from 1933 until 1945.