Edda Tasiemka (; 1922–2019) was a German archivist who, with her husband Hans, established a large library of about six million

press cutting A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include ...

s which was used by authors and journalists in London—the Hans Tasiemka Archive. It was successful because it contained material from magazines and periodicals going back to the 19th century and these were otherwise hard to obtain. She continued to maintain and operate the archive for 39 years after her husband died, passing it into the care of the

Hyman Archive HYMAG (formerly the Hyman Archive) is a British archive of popular publications based in London. The archive was established by James Hyman, who for over 30 years has collected magazines, pamphlets, newsletters, brochures, ephemera and other prin ...

when she was 95.

Early life and marriage

Her parents were Luise Hoppe and the communist politician, Paul Frölich. She was born in 1922 in Hamburg. Her father was imprisoned in 1933 and her mother in 1938. She was herself interviewed by the Gestapo and refused to join the Hitler Youth. Having trained as a draughtswoman designing

air raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

s, she worked for the British army of occupation after the Second World War and met Hans Tasiemka in 1949, while he was working as an interpreter for the war crimes trials. They moved to London where they married with the actor Peter Lorre as the best man.

Hans Tasiemka Archive

In London, Hans worked as a journalist for the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

, while Edda worked for Universal Aunts. She started working as a journalist too, writing stories for German magazines and newspapers. They developed Hans' professional habit of collecting clippings into a library and commercial business, supplying authors and journalists. Moving from a

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off the Finchley Road to a semi-detached house in Golders Green, they accumulated about six million cuttings from magazines and newspapers dating back to the 19th century. The older magazines, such as a complete run of '' Le Rire'', were acquired at antiques fairs. The cuttings were filed by person – celebrities such as royalty and sportsmen – and by topics such as bigamy and sneezing. It had a better coverage of magazines and international periodicals than newspapers' own cuttings libraries and those libraries were disrupted or destroyed when the newspapers moved out of

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

in the 1980s. Her husband Hans died in 1979 but Edda continued to operate the library up to the age of 95. She developed her own index system which enabled her to locate relevant cuttings quickly. Historian Robert Lacey, who used the library to write ''Majesty'', said, "Mrs Tasiemka was a Google search engine long before Google was invented." This facility caused her to be nicknamed the "Human Google". Another keen customer was the author, Nicholas Coleridge, who used her as a character in a novel. Other authors who credited her included Tina Brown, Rupert Butler,

Kitty Kelley Katherine Kelley (born April 4, 1942) is an American journalist and author of best-selling unauthorized biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and ...

, John Pearson and

Howard Sounes Howard Sounes (born 1965) is a British author, journalist and biographer. Biography Born in Welling, South East London, Sounes began his journalistic career as a staff reporter for the ''Sunday Mirror''. He broke major stories, including one ...

. She never advertised the business, attracting custom just by word of mouth. One reason for this was that she was frightened that the archive would be closed down as a fire risk. To avoid attracting the attention of the authorities, she always called herself a "researcher" on official documents, never a librarian. The advent of the Internet reduced the turnover of the business but, in 2005, the library might still get 20 inquiries in a day, seeking information about subjects such as the Tanganyika groundnut scheme, Milli Vanilli or John Humphrys. Her charges for information then started at £50. She still enjoyed reading the stories herself, saying, "Sometimes I take cuttings to bed with me ... During the day I've got to control myself and not start reading unless it's for a customer." There had been offers to buy the library from Eddy Shah and Robert Maxwell but they were refused. Edda had assistants to help operate the library but did all the filing herself so, when she became too frail in 2018, the library was transferred to the

, which plans to digitise it. She was pleased that the material had gone to a good home and welcomed the re-appearance of the paintings that had been covered by piles of files.

Personal life

After her husband died, Peter Knight, who ran a cartoon syndication agency, became her " toyboy". They would go out together dancing or to the opera or theatre. They dined by romantic candlelight twice a week but never lived together and he died in 2015. Besides press cuttings, she also collected curios including Adam Buck tea sets, cat paintings by Louis Wain, Georgian

salt cellar A salt cellar (also called a salt, salt-box and a salt pig) is an article of tableware for holding and dispensing salt. In British English, the term is normally used for what in North American English are called salt shakers. Salt cellars can be ...

s and

knife rest A knife rest is a piece of kitchenware for resting a used knife without touching the table to prevent cooking fluids from getting onto countertops. Similar tools are the chopstick rest and spoon and chopstick rest used in Asian cuisine and the ...

s, Meissen porcelain,

Staffordshire figures Staffordshire figures are a type of popular pottery figurine made in England from the 18th century onward. Most Staffordshire figures made from 1740 to 1900 were produced by small potteries and makers' marks are generally absent. Most Victorian f ...

and Victorian china fairings. She was active into old age, going on marches to protest against the Iraq War and celebrating her 90th birthday with champagne. She was afraid of dogs, due to childhood experience of the German Shepherds used by the Gestapo, but fed

urban foxes The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

when she was in London. She also liked sheep and had two life-size model sheep in her drawing room.

References

External links

The Culture Show
– Alan Yentob and Lynn Barber visit the archive in 2014
Hyman Archive
– A visit by author Ian Birch to the rehoused archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Tasiemka, Edda 1922 births 2019 deaths British archivists Female archivists German emigrants to the United Kingdom Journalists from Hamburg People from Golders Green