Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz

{{Short description|Austro-Hungarian writer, poet, translator, educator and fashion designer}}

{{Infobox writer

| name=Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz

| image=Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz.jpg

| image_size=250px

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| pseudonym=VDG

| birth_name=Sidonie Josepha Zerkowitz

| birth_date={{birth date|1852|02|17|df=y}}

| birth_place=Tobitschau, Moravia

| death_date={{death date and age|1907|06|12|1852|02|17|df=y}}

| death_place=Karlsbad, Bohemia

| resting_place=Vienna Central Cemetery (Jewish section)

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| spouse={{marriage|Prince Theodore Kolokotronis|5 December 1874|1876|end=div}}
{{marriage|Leopold Grünwald|26 June 1877|1890|end=d}}
{{marriage|Ferdinand Hromatka|1900}}

| children=

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}}

Sidonie Josepha Grünwald-Zerkowitz (17 February 1852 – 12 June 1907) was an Austro-Hungarian writer, poet, translator, educator, and fashion designer.

Biography

Sidonie Zerkowitz was born into a Jewish family in Tobitschau, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), the daughter of Jeanette ({{nee|Knopfelmacher}}) and Gerson Zerkowitz.{{r|nigg}} An ancestor on her father's side was a banker to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague.{{r|blko}} She received her early education from her father, a physician,{{r|obl}} becoming well-versed in German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, and English.{{r|kosel}} With her parents she moved to Holleschau, where she studied at a normal school.{{r|brummer}} She later briefly attended boarding school in Vienna. Zerkowitz thereupon came to Budapest,{{r|eisenberg}} and before long passed the final state examination to teach Hungarian history and language.{{r|pataky}}

Zerkowitz wrote lyrical poems, essays and pedagogical articles in Hungarian for the daily and belletristic papers in Budapest, becoming well known in literary circles. Her pedagogical articles, which attracted the attention of Minister of Education Ágoston Trefort, advocated for reforms of the higher state institutions for girls in Hungary.{{r|pataky}}

In November 1874, after teaching at a municipal school for a few years, she received from Ludwig II of Bavaria a free scholarship at his theatrical school in Munich. Her studies were interrupted the following month by her marriage to Prince Theodore Kolokotronis of Greece, grandson of Theodoros Kolokotronis and great-grandson of Prince John Caradja.{{r|blko}} (She had previously turned down a marriage proposal from the poet Kálmán Tóth.){{r|derstandard}} Joining the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, she accompanied her husband to Athens, where both she and her husband were disowned by the latter's family. The marriage was an unhappy one,{{r|deutschlands}} and she soon fled Greece to her parents in Holleschau.{{r|derstandard}}

In order to earn a living, she gave up her plan to become an actress, left her newborn child in the care of her parents and took a job as a teacher in the village of Winau. In 1877, after securing a divorce, she re-converted to Judaism and married the wealthy Vienna merchant and widower Leopold Grünwald, with whom she bore five more children.{{r|reconversion}}{{r|blumesberger}}

In Vienna, she became a fashion designer and edited the French and German fashion magazine La Mode. She lectured extensively on women's fashion in Vienna and Constantinople,{{r|brummer}} and, after her husband's death in 1890, she took over the management of a Viennese language school.{{r|blumesberger}}

Work

When only thirteen years of age she published her first essays on literature, in German and Hungarian, in the newspapers of Budapest.{{r|JE}}

In 1887 she anonymously published Die Lieder der Mormonin ('Songs of a Mormoness'), a verse novel printed in the format of a 4-metre-long Torah scroll.{{r|nigg}} The work follows the sexual awakening of the protagonist as she enters a Mormon plural marriage.{{r|sophie}} Though the book was banned in Austria as pornographic, by 1900, at least seven editions had appeared in print.{{r|sophie}} Das Gretchen von Heute, a volume of erotic poetry, was subject to an obscenity trial soon after its release, and subsequently banned across the Austrian Empire.{{r|eveningstar}}

In other publications, she took a stand against anti-Semitism, and promoted women's education and independence.{{r|brahms}}{{r|JE}} Her Wie verheiratet man mitgiftlose Mädchen? (1905), for instance, argued for the creation of 'dowry funds' akin to pension and sick funds.{{r|lanzingeretal}}

Other works by Grünwald-Zerkowitz included Zwanzig Gedichte von Koloman Tóth (Vienna, 1874), translated from Hungarian; Die Mode in der Frauenkleidung (Vienna, 1889); Das Gretchen von Heute (Zurich, 1890); Achmed's Ehe (1900); Doppel-Ehen (1900); Poetischer Hirt (1901); and Schattenseiten des Frauenstudiums (1901). She contributed many articles to newspapers; among those contributed to the Berlin Bühne und Welt included "Toilettenkünstlerinnen auf der Bühne", and critical essays on Sarah Bernhardt, Wolter, Dusé, Réjane, and Jane Hading, among others.{{r|JE}}

=Partial bibliography=

{{cite book|title=Zwanzig Gedichte von Koloman Tóth (Tóth Kálmán)|trans-title=Twenty Poems by Kálmán Tóth|date=1874|location=Vienna|publisher=Verlag von L. Rosner|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfsr5conpO4C|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Die Lieder der Mormonin|publisher=Verlag von Hermann Dürfelen|date=1888|url=https://sophie.byu.edu/sites/default/files/editor_uploadsfile/texts/Grunewald/Grunewald_LiederDerMormonin.pdf|location=Leipzig|trans-title=Songs of a Mormoness|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Die Mode in der Frauenkleidung|url=http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/1002E4D8|location=Vienna|date=1889|publisher=Verlag von Georg Szelinski|trans-title=Fashion in Women's Clothing|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Achmeds Ehe. Aus dem Harem. Erzählungen|trans-title=Ahmed's Marriage / From the Harem|date=1899|location=Dresden|publisher=E. Pierson's Verlag|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Doppelehen!|trans-title=Bigamy!|location=Zürich|url=http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/10009C29|date=1900|publisher=Verlag von Caesar Schmidt|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Das Gretchen von heute|publisher=Verlag von Caesar Schmidt|location=Zürich|date=1900|language=de|trans-title=The Gretchen of Today|url=https://sophie.byu.edu/sites/default/files/editor_uploadsfile/texts/Grunewald/Grunwald_GretchenVonHeute.pdf}}
{{cite book|title=Die Schattenseiten des Frauenstudiums: Vortrag|trans-title=The Downsides of Women's Studies|location= Zurich|publisher=Schmidt|date=1902|language=de}}
{{cite wikisource|wslanguage=de|title=Möcht' dir gefallen|journal=Die zehnte Muse|publisher=Otto Eisner|date=1904|location=Berlin|page=87}} [https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/p15831coll6/id/7312 Set to music] by Otto Wick.
{{cite book|title=Wie verheiratet man mitgiftlose Mädchen?|trans-title=How to Marry Dowryless Girls|url=https://sophie.byu.edu/sites/default/files/editor_uploadsfile/texts/Grunewald/Grunwald_WieVerheiratetMan.pdf|date=1905|location=Vienna|publisher=K. k. Universitäts-Buchhandlung Georg Szelinski|language=de}}
{{cite book|title=Eheweh. Eine häßliche Geschichte von Alletag|location=Vienna|date=1906|publisher=Verlag von Georg Szelinski|url=http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/10009B8C|language=de}}

References

{{Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Grünwald-Zerkowitz, Sidonie|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6913-grunwald-zerkowitz-sidonie|first1=Isidore|last1=Singer|author1-link=Isidore Singer|author2-link=Frederick T. Haneman|first2=Frederick T.|last2=Haneman|volume=6|page=101}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite book|first1=Margareth|last1=Lanzinger|first2=Gunda|last2=Barth-Scalmani|first3=Ellinor|last3=Forster|first4=Gertrude|last4=Langer-Ostrawsky| title=Aushandeln von Ehe: Heiratsverträge der Neuzeit im europäischen Vergleich| publisher=Böhlau Verlag|publication-place=Cologne| year=2010|isbn=978-3-412-20218-7 |oclc=900456584|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LOxiS8rSgxEC&pg=PA478 | language=de | page=478}}

{{BLKO |wstitle=Zerkowitz, Sidonie|volume=59|page=340|year=1890}}

{{ÖBL|2|92|93|Grünwald-Zerkovitz, Sidonie|doi=10.1553/0x0028194e}}

{{cite book | chapter=Brahms the Godfather|first=Styra|last=Avins|editor-last=Frisch | editor-first=Walter | editor-last2=Karnes | editor-first2=Kevin C. | title=Brahms and His World|edition=revised | publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton| year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4008-3362-7 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pyHu9R_sSNsC&pg=PA55 | page=55}}

{{cite web|title=Vienna Converts to Judaism|url=https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/AustriaCzech/ConvertstoJudaism1868-1945.html|date=1868–1945|type=Index|via=JewishGen|access-date=2 May 2021}}

{{cite web|first1=Susanne|last1=Blumesberger|first2=Karin|last2=Walzel|url=https://www.univie.ac.at/biografiA/daten/text/bio/gruenwald_s.htm|title=Grünwald Sidonie, geb. Zerkovitz, Zerkowitz, verh. Koloktroni (Kolokotronis), Grünwald-Zerkowitz|website=biografiA: Biografische Datenbank und Lexikon österreichischer Frauen|access-date=28 November 2020|publisher=University of Vienna}}

{{cite news|title=Verses Too Bad for Vienna: An Austrian Female Poet of Passion Squelched by the Law|page=6|location=Washington, D.C.|newspaper=The Evening Star|date=4 September 1890|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1890-09-04/ed-1/seq-6/}}

{{cite encyclopedia|title=Grünwald-Zerkowitz, Sidonie|author-link=Franz Brümmer|last=Brümmer|first=Franz|encyclopedia=Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart|volume=2|date=1913|pages=477–478|location=Leipzig|publisher=Philipp Reclam|url=https://archive.org/stream/lexikonderdeutsc02bruoft#page/477/mode/2up|language=de}}

{{cite book|author-link=Ludwig Eisenberg (writer)|first=Ludwig|last=Eisenberg|title=Das geistige Wien: Künstler- und Schriftsteller-Lexikon|publisher=Hrsg. von Ludwig Eisenberg und Richard Groner|location=Vienna|date=1889–1893}}

{{cite book|last=Kosel|first=Hermann Clemens|title=Deutsch-österreichisches Künstler- und Schriftsteller-Lexikon|volume=1|publisher=Verlag der Gesellschaft für Graphische Industrie|location=Vienna|date=1902}}

{{cite encyclopedia|last=Pataky|first=Sophie|title=Grünwald-Zerkowitz, Frau Sidonie|encyclopedia=Lexikon deutscher Frauen der Feder. Eine Zusammenstellung der seit dem Jahre 1840 erschienenen Werke weiblicher Autoren, nebst Biographieen der lebenden und einem Verzeichnis der Pseudonyme|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zW1kAAAAMAAJ/page/n307/mode/2up/|publisher=Verlagsbuchhandlung von Carl Pataky|location=Berlin|date=1898|language=de|pages=290–292}}

{{cite book | last=Nigg | first=Marianne | title=Biographien der österreichischen Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen. Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Literatur in Österreich | publisher=Verlag von Julius Kühkopf's Buchhandlung | year=1893 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HyE-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA26| language=de| page=26}}

{{cite encyclopedia|title=Grünwald-Zerkowitz, Sidonie|encyclopedia=Deutschlands, Osterreich-Ungarns und der Schweiz Gelehrte, Künstler und Schriftsteller in Wort und Bild|location=Hannover|publisher=B. Volge|date=1908|pages=168–169|url=https://archive.org/details/deutschlandsste00unkngoog/page/n193/mode/2up}}

{{cite book|chapter='Ich bin ein Pioneer': Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz's Die Lieder der Mormonin (1887) and the Erotic Exploration of Exotic America|first= Sarah C.|last=Reed|editor-last=McFarland | editor-first=Rob |editor-last2=James | editor-first2=Michelle Stott|title=Sophie Discovers Amerika: German-Speaking Women Write the New World|publisher=Camden House|location=Rochester|year=2014|isbn=978-1-57113-586-5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_ezAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|jstor=10.7722/j.ctt5vj78r|pages=92–101}}

{{cite news|newspaper=Der Standard|language=de|location=Vienna|title=Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz: Ausnahmetalent und Individualistin|first=Tanja|last=Paar|date=8 June 2015|access-date=28 November 2020|url=https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000017092938/sidonie-gruenwald-zerkowitz-ausnahmetalent-und-individualistin}}

}}

External links

{{cite archive|item=Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz|item-url=https://fraueninbewegung.onb.ac.at/node/3007|type= |item-id= |date=2019|collection=Frauen in Bewegung, 1848–1938|collection-url=https://fraueninbewegung.onb.ac.at/|institution=Österreichische Nationalbibliothek|location=Vienna|language=de}}

Category:1852 births

Category:1907 deaths

Category:19th-century Austrian Jews

Category:19th-century Austrian poets

Category:19th-century Austrian women writers

Category:19th-century Czech poets

Category:19th-century Czech women writers

Category:19th-century Hungarian educators

Category:19th-century Hungarian poets

Category:19th-century Hungarian women writers

Category:19th-century women educators

Category:Fashion designers from Austria-Hungary