Jenny Weleminsky

Portrait picture of Jenny Weleminsky and her husband Friedrich c. 1905–1910

Jenny Weleminsky much admired Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) – pictured here in an 1841 lithograph by Josef Kriehuber – who was regarded as the national poet of Austria. Jenny Weleminsky (née Elbogen; 12 June 1882 4 February 1957) was a German-speaking Esperantist and translator who was born in Thalheim, Lower Austria,

Early life and education Jenny Elbogen was born into a Jewish family on 12 June 1882 at Schloss Thalheim, Lower Austria, the youngest child of Guido Elbogen, who became President of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Vienna, and his wife Rosalie (Ali) (née Schwabacher), whom he married in 1868 in Paris. She had two sisters and a brother (Heinrich).

Jenny Elbogen was educated at home by a Miss Allen, a governess from Devon, England. She became sufficiently fluent in English to translate Axel Munthe's memoir The Story of San Michele from English to Esperanto for publication in 1935.

Marriage and family life After her father died in 1918 she inherited Schloss Thalheim; her father had bought it in 1882 just before she was born. She lived there and in Prague (which until 1918 was part of Austria-Hungary) with her husband Friedrich ("Fritz") Weleminsky; they married at Schloss Thalheim on 4 December 1905. He was a lecturer in Hygiene (now called Microbiology) at the German University, Prague and developed tuberculomucin Weleminsky, a treatment for tuberculosis. The couple ran Schloss Thalheim as model dairy farm.

Facing Nazi persecution for being Jewish, they found sanctuary in 1939 in the United Kingdom

After the Second World War and the death of her husband, Jenny Weleminsky spent several years in Vienna, returning eventually to London, where she died of breast cancer on 4 February 1957, aged 74.

She and her husband had four children together. Two of their daughters emigrated in the early 1930s to Mandatory Palestine where they took new names – Eliesabeth (born 1909) became Jardenah, and Dorothea (born 1912) was known as Leah. Their eldest daughter, Marianne (born 1906), and their son, Anton (born 1908), moved to Britain just before the Second World War.

Publications Translations from German Novel Alexander Roda Roda,

Play Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. Sappho: tragedio en kvin aktoj, Vienna

Poetry Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. Poemoj de Grillparzer (Poems of Grillparzer) Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. "La ora felo: drama poemo en tri partoj" Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. "La praavino: kvinakta tragedio", Vienna Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. "La sonĝo kiel vivo: drama fabelo en kvar aktoj", Vienna Franz Grillparzer, translated by Jenny Weleminsky. "Hanibalo: fragmento el nefinita dramo", Vienna Franz Grillparzer: "Respondo", Anastasius Grün: "La epitafo", translated