Leonie Adele Spitzer (17 May 1891 – 5 June 1940) was an

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 ...

n writer, poet, and educator.

Biography

Leonie Adele Spitzer was born into a distinguished assimilated

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Her father was ''Obermedizinalrat'' Dr. Franz Spitzer, who worked as a physician for the ' writers' and journalists' association, while her paternal grandfather was mathematician

Simon Spitzer Simon Spitzer (3 February 1826 – 2 April 1887) was an Austrian mathematician, whose work largely focused on the integration of differential equations. He was active as a writer in his field and, in addition to several independent works, publishe ...

. Her mother Charlotte, , was the daughter of Dr. Wilhelm Pokorny, homeopath and physician to the Austrian aristocracy. She was educated at the , and passed the teaching qualification examination for

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

in 1912. Spitzer graduated with a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

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 ...

on 21 July 1920, with a dissertation entitled "Über Rilkes Verskunst". She was editor of the Rikola publishing house until 1922, whereupon she pursued teaching as a profession. She passed the teacher's examination for gymnasia in 1923, and then worked at various secondary schools in Vienna, including the Floridsdorf Gymnasium. She fled to Italy after the annexation of

into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1938 (her twin brother Dr. Fritz Spitzer, meanwhile, committed suicide). She emigrated to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

the following year with the help of Dr. , secretary of the Emergency Sub-Committee for Refugees. She received positions at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...

and then Crofton Grange School, but soon succumbed to a serious illness and died in June 1940. Because she was Jewish, Spitzer's doctorate was posthumously revoked on 22 July 1943, only to be symbolically re-granted on 15 May 1955.

Bibliography

* ''Sturmflut. Versdrama''. * ''Leonore. Novelle.'' * *

References

External links

Poems by Spitzer
at deutscher-liebeslyrik.de. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spitzer, Leonie Adele 1891 births 1940 deaths 20th-century Austrian educators 20th-century Austrian poets 20th-century Austrian women writers Austrian emigrants to England Austrian women poets Jewish Austrian writers Jewish educators Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss Jewish women writers Jews and Judaism in Vienna Refugees in the United Kingdom University of Vienna alumni