Eugenie Schwarzwald (1872–1940) ~1920 by Grete Kolliner

Eugenie Schwarzwald, (née Nußbaum) (4 July 1872, in Polupanivka near

Zbruch River The Zbruch ( uk, Збруч, pl, Zbrucz) is a river in Western Ukraine, a left tributary of the Dniester.Збруч
...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now

Ternopil Raion Ternopil Raion ( uk, Тернопільський район) is a raion in Ternopil Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil. It has a population of On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the n ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

)) and died on 7 August 1940, in Zurich, founded the innovative Schwarzwald school. A progressive Austrian

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, writer and

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

, she developed education for girls in Austria and was one of the most learned women of her time.

Early life

Eugenie Nußbaum left home in 1895 and studied

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

. She received her doctoral degree in 1900. At that time, women were not allowed to study at Austrian high schools and universities and Eugenie was one of the first academically educated women in

. In 1900 she married Dr. Hermann Schwarzwald (1871–1939).

Innovative educator

Schwarzwald was known as an innovative educator. In Austria, in 1901 she became head of the Girls' Secondary School and in 1911 of the Girls' College. Her aim was to offer an adequate and motivating secondary education to girls, comparable to that which was accessible to boys. To reach that goal, she engaged many contemporary, prominent artists and scientists to teach the girls. For example,

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense Expressionism, expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the ...

gave lessons in drawing,

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

taught music and composition and

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...

lectured on architecture. This school became a prototype of so-called Schwarzwald schools (Schwarzwaldschulen), modern schools for girls. She often spoke on

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

to men at the Wiener Frauen Club. Among the famous students of the Schwarzwald schools were the art historian Emmy Wellesz and the ethnologist

Marianne Schmidl Marianne Schmidl (3 August 1890 in Berchtesgaden – April 1942 in the Izbica Ghetto) was first woman to graduate with a doctorate in ethnology from the University of Vienna. An Austrian ethnologist, teacher, librarian and art collector, Schmidl wa ...

, who would become the first woman to receive a doctorate in ethnology from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

. During

World War I 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 ...

, she devoted herself to caring for ill and elderly people as well as deprived children. She wrote newspaper articles, ''

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criti ...

s'' and short

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

"Genia" Schwarzwald played an important part in Viennese cultural life and social events. Like many of her contemporaries, she organised a literary salon where she invited Kokoschka, Loos or Schönberg as well as the novelists

Elias Canetti Elias Canetti (; bg, Елиас Канети; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994) was a German-language writer, born in Ruse, Bulgaria to a Sephardic family. They moved to Manchester, England, but his father died in 1912, and his mother took her t ...

and

Robert Musil Robert Musil (; 6 November 1880 – 15 April 1942) was an Austrian philosophical writer. His unfinished novel, ''The Man Without Qualities'' (german: link=no, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften), is generally considered to be one of the most important ...

. She and

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance, who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in ...

inspired the character Ermelinda Tuzzi, " Diotima", in Musil's novel ''

The Man Without Qualities ''The Man Without Qualities'' (german: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften; 1930–1943) is an unfinished modernist novel in three volumes and various drafts, by the Austrian writer Robert Musil. The novel is a "story of ideas", which takes place in th ...

''.

Anschluss and Holocaust

In 1938, Schwarzwald was forced to leave

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

due to her Jewish ancestry and emigrated to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Her assets were seized by Nazis, the Schwarzwald schools were closed, and many of her students, who were Jewish women, were murdered in the Holocaust. She died in Zurich on 7 August 1940.

References

1872 births 1940 deaths Austrian educators Austrian expatriates in Switzerland Austrian feminists Austrian philanthropists Austrian schoolteachers Austrian women writers Austro-Hungarian Jews Jewish educators Jewish feminists Jewish philanthropists Jewish women Jewish Austrian writers Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) People from Ternopil Oblast Ukrainian Jews Women philanthropists {{Austria-bio-stub

Early life

Innovative educator

Anschluss and Holocaust

See also

References