Elisabeth Langgässer

Elisabeth Langgässer (23 February 1899 – 25 July 1950) was a German author, journalist 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.

Early life In 1899 Langgässer was born in Alzey into a middle-class Roman-Catholic family. Her father was building inspector, architect Eduard Langässer (1846–1909), son of the commercial broker Coloman from Mainz and Barbara Lebrecht. Her mother was Eugenie Maria Pauline Dienst (1859–1942), daughter of the Senior Court Secretary Paul Dienst from Mainz and Maria Anna Rauch.

In 1909, after her father's death, the family moved to Darmstadt, where Langgässer attended school and graduated from all-girl Viktoriaschule high school. After a year of teacher training, she taught at Hessian grade schools in Seligenstadt and Griesheim from 1920 until 1928.

Publications during the Weimar Republic From 1924 onwards Langgässer published poetry and reviews. After losing her employment as a teacher she devoted herself to a literary career. and the married couple Oda Schaefer and Horst Lange. In June 1935 Langgässer married Wilhelm Hoffman and together they had three daughters.

Ultimately the marriage in 1935 to Wilhelm Hoffman (1899–1967), Dr. phil., lecturer at the Germersheim Institute of the University of Mainz; which she had met in Berlin while working as a radio editor in 1933; 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.

The Elisabeth Langgässer Literature Prize, named after her, has been awarded every three years by the city of Alzey since 1988.

Works

Der Wendekreis des Lammes (Poems), 1924. Proserpina (Narrative), 1932. New edition Hofenberg, Berlin 2022, ISBN 978-3-7437-4342-7 Grenze. Besetzes Gebiet, Ballade eines Landes. First edition in 1932 published by Morgenland-Verlag by Rahel Bin-Gorion and her son Emanuel Bin-Gorion, new edition Elsinor Verlag, Coesfeld 2023, ISBN 978-3-942788-76-2. The book provides a vivid insight into life in 1923 under French occupation in the Mainz bridgehead. Triptychon des Teufels - Ein Buch von dem Hass, dem Börsenspiel und der Unzucht, W. Jess, Dresden 1932. New edition Hofenberg, Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3-7437-4092-1 Die Tierkreisgedichte (Poems), 1935. Der Gang durch das Ried (Novel), 1936. New edition Hofenberg, Berlin 2023, ISBN 978-3-7437-4640-4 Rettung am Rhein. Drei Schicksalsläufe, 1938. Das unauslöschliche Siegel (Novel), Claassen&Goverts, Hamburg 1946. (Here she addresses the fate of her Jewish father, who was baptized.) dtv-Pocket book: München 1989, ISBN 3-423-11116-X. New edition Hofenberg, Berlin 2023, ISBN 978-3-7437-4658-9 Der Laubmann und die Rose (Poems), 1947. Der Torso (Short-stories), 1947. New edition Hofenberg, Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3-7437-4120-1 Untergetaucht Glück haben Saisonbeginn Nichts Neues Das Labyrinth (Short-story), 1949. Märkische Argonautenfahrt (Novel), 1950. Gesammelte Werke (5 vols), posthumous 1959–1964. Ausgewählte Erzählungen, posthumous 1984, Claassen, ISBN 3-546-45837-0.