Agathe Lasch (born 4 July 1879, in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
; died 18 August 1942, in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
) was a German
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
. She was the first female
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
of
German studies
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...
in Germany, and the first female professor at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
. She founded the historical study of the
Middle Low German
Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...
language. As a Jew, Lasch was murdered during the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.
Life
Lasch was born into a family of Jewish merchants in 1879. Like her three sisters, she first trained as a teacher (1898) and then taught at various girls' schools and vocational schools until 1906. In 1906 she received her
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
from the
Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium
The Kaiserin Augusta Gymnasium Berlin was a German school based in Charlottenburg, a locality of Berlin. It started in 1818 as a private school, founded by Ludwig Cauer (educator), Ludwig Cauer. In 1869, it expanded and became a gymnasium. In 1876 ...
in
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
(Berlin). After this she was able to study German in
Halle and then at
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
under the supervision of
Wilhelm Braune Theodor Wilhelm Braune (20 February 1850 in Großthiemig, Province of Saxony – 10 November 1926 in Heidelberg) was a German philologist and Germanist.
Biography
In 1869 Braune entered the University of Leipzig, where he was approved as an instruc ...
, and received her doctorate in 1909, despite the fact that as a woman she was not permitted to attend courses in Berlin in 1908. Because of her impressive achievements she was offered a job as Associate Professor at the women's liberal arts college
Bryn Mawr in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Here she produced her Middle Low German grammar (1914), which is still a standard reference work in Germanic linguistics today. Due to the USA's entry into the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Lasch returned to Germany in 1917 to take up a post as Assistentin in German at Hamburg. Following her
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
(1919), in 1923 she was the first woman to receive the title of professor at the University of Hamburg, and the first female Germanist to receive this title in all of Germany. In 1926 an extraordinary chair in Low German philology was created for her at Hamburg. There, Lasch continued the study of the linguistic history of Berlin that had begun in her dissertation, and published these in 1928 in her book ''Berlinisch''. In addition, she worked with
Conrad Borchling
Conrad may refer to:
People
* Conrad (name)
Places
United States
* Conrad, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Conrad, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Conrad, Iowa, a city
* Conrad, Montana, a city
* Conrad Glacier, Washingto ...
on two large dictionary projects to systematically capture the lexicon of Middle Low German and of the
Hamburgisch dialect
Hamburg German, also known as Hamburg dialect or Hamburger dialect (natively , german: Hamburger Platt), is a group of Northern Low Saxon varieties spoken in Hamburg, Germany. Occasionally, the term ''Hamburgisch'' is also used for Hamburg '' Mis ...
. In 1928 she was able to publish the first volume of her Middle Low German dictionary (''Mittelniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch''). The dictionary of Hamburgisch only started to appear in 1956 on the basis of her preparations.
Researchers from abroad were briefly able to prevent her being dismissed immediately once the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
came to power, but in 1934 she was nevertheless stripped of her professorship. In 1937 she moved to Berlin to live with her sisters and attempted to continue her research. She was banned from publishing, and was no longer allowed to use public libraries. In addition, on 8 December 1938, Jewish researchers lost their previous special right to use university libraries. Her own library of around 4,000 volumes was seized and confiscated on 9 July 1942. The German government prevented her from taking up job offers at universities abroad (
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
and later
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
). On 13 August 1942 she and her sisters were ordered to a
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
, and on August 15 she was
deported
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
to
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
. She never reached the ghetto, but was murdered on 18 August 1942 in the woods around
Šķirotava
Šķirotava is a neighbourhood of Riga, the capital of Latvia. It is located in the Latgale Suburb of Riga close to the city's southeastern border. The perfect way to get there is by Rīgas Satiksme
Rīgas Satiksme is a municipally-owned publi ...
, shortly after her arrival there.
[Alfred Gottwaldt, Diana Schulle: ''Die „Judendeportationen“ aus dem Deutschen Reich 1941–1945: eine kommentierte Chronologie.'' Marix, Wiesbaden 2005, , pp. 251 and 255.]
Honours and awards
In 1970, a street in the
Othmarschen
Othmarschen () is a quarter in the Altona borough of the Hamburg in northern Germany. In 2020 the population was 16,009.
History
The first records on Othmarschen are from 1317. Together with Altona, Othmarschen became a part of Hamburg in 1937/1 ...
quarter of Hamburg was named after her.
Since 1992, the city of Hamburg has offered an Agathe Lasch Prize (5000 €) for exceptional achievements in
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
linguistics.
An auditorium at the University of Hamburg has borne her name since 1999.
In
Halensee
Halensee () is a ''locality'' (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Halensee was established as a villa and tenement settlement in about 1880, in the suburb of Wilmersdorf, which became part of Great ...
, Berlin, a
city square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
was named after her in 2004, near to the
Kurfürstendamm
The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...
.
In 2007, on the initiative of the
Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte
The Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte (VHG) is a historical society founded on 9 April 1839, which is open to both professional historians and historically interested laypersons. The society's office and library are located in the .
History
...
(Hamburg History Association), a
Stolperstein
A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The project, initiat ...
(commemorative flagstone) for Agathe Lasch was laid in front of No. 9 Gustav-Leo-Straße, Hamburg. Another Stolperstein can be found in front of the main building of the University of Hamburg, at Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1.
A memorial stone for Agathe Lasch was erected in the Women's Garden at Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg in 2009 by the ''Verein Garten der Frauen'' (Women's Garden Association).
In 2010 another Stolperstein was laid in
Schmargendorf
Schmargendorf () is a south-western locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Until 2001 it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.
Geography
Schmargendorf borders with the localities o ...
, Berlin, in front of Caspar-Theyß-Straße 26, in memory of Agathe Lasch and her sisters Elsbeth and Margarete Lasch.
Works
* (1909) ''Geschichte der Schriftsprache in Berlin bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts'' (History of written language in Berlin before the middle of the 16th century). Dissertation,
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
.
* (1914) ''Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik'' (Middle Low German grammar)
* (1919) ''Der Anteil des Plattdeutschen am niederelbischen Geistesleben im 17. Jahrhundert'' (The role of Low German in the spiritual life of the Lower Elbe region in the 17th century). Habilitation thesis, University of Hamburg, 1919.
* (1928) ''Berlinisch. Eine berlinische Sprachgeschichte'' (Berlinisch: a linguistic history of Berlin)
* (1928-1934) ''Mittelniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch'' (Middle Low German dictionary), vols. 1-7
* (2006) ''Kleines Hamburgisches Wörterbuch'' (Concise Hamburgisch dictionary), eds. Beate Hennig, Jürgen Meier. Wachholtz Verlag, Hamburg 2006, .
Literature
* Conrad Borchling: ''Agathe Lasch zum Gedächtnis. Ansprache auf der Jahresversammlung des Vereins für niederdeutsche Sprachforschung zu Goslar am 28. September 1946.'' In ''Niederdeutsche Mitteilungen. Herausgegeben von der Niederdeutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft zu Lund'', vol. 2, 1946, pp. 7–20.
* Matthias Harbeck, Sonja Kobold: ''Spurensicherung – Provenienzforschung zur Bibliothek von Agathe Lasch. Ein Projekt der Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.'' In Stefan Alker et al. (eds.): ''Bibliotheken in der NS-Zeit. Provenienzforschung und Bibliotheksgeschichte.'' VR Unipress, Göttingen et al. 2008, .
* Christine M. Kaiser, ''Agathe Lasch (1879–1942): erste Germanistikprofessorin Deutschlands'', Teetz et al.: Hentrich & Hentrich / Berlin: Stiftung Neue Synagoge, Centrum Judaicum, 2007, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 63), .
* Christine M. Kaiser: ''‚Ich habe Deutschland immer geliebt...‘ Agathe Lasch (1879-1942)''. In Joist Grolle, Matthias Schmoock (eds.): ''Spätes Gedenken.'' Hamburg 2009, , pp. 65–98.
*
* ''Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren''. Volume 15. Saur, München 2007, pp. 170–174
Links
agathe-lasch.de– Website on the life and works of Agathe Lasch
of Agathe-Lasch-Platz by the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf local authorities
of the Institut für Germanistik. 5 vols., Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2006.
Ingrid Schröder: „… den sprachlichen Beobachtungen geschichtliche Darstellung geben“ – die Germanistikprofessorin Agathe Lasch in: Rainer Nicolaysen: Das Hauptgebäude der Universität Hamburg als Gedächtnisort(PDF; 9,5 MB)
* Inge Stephan, “tear down outdated
views”. Agathe Lasch, an academic revolutionary, in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, April 25, 2021, https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:article-278.en.v1
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lasch, Agathe
Linguists from Germany
German lexicographers
Historical linguists
Low German
University of Hamburg faculty
Bryn Mawr College faculty
1879 births
1942 deaths
Jewish non-fiction writers
Jewish women writers
20th-century German women writers
20th-century German non-fiction writers
German Jews who died in the Holocaust