glikl after all

last week on the front page of german wikipedia, i came across the name of bertha pappenheim, whose obit it was on that 28th may. in the beginning it was only curiousity, but the more i read, the more i was enchanted with this little piece of knowledge, and as the english article on wikipedia concentrates solely on one aspect of her biography, i thought i'd share it here. the following is a summary of the article you can read here, if you understand german, or at least look at the pictures, if you don't.

bertha pappenheim was born third daughter to a jewish family in vienna on 7th february 1859. belonging to a wealthy family, she received her education at a catholic school, while being raised and living according to the jewish faith.

in her childhood, at 8 years old, she suffered a traumatic loss as her eldest sister died from tuberculosis. when she was 16, her education ended, she stayed home and was expected to develop household skills; she painfully envied her younger brother who of course was allowed to continue school.

when she was 21 and the family was staying at ischl during summer, another tragedy was imminent. her father became ill with an infection; while bertha was guarding his side over night, she was suddenly haunted with hallucinations and irrational frights. the development, consequences and therapy of her psychological affliction brougt her dubious fame. the symptoms she suffered were diverse and fascinating: she had aphasies - meaning at times she couldn't speak at all, at others only express herself in english, french or italian - and paresis - she couldn't move her righthand side, forcing her to learn to write with her left hand. her moods varied from anxiety and depression to relaxation according to the time of day, influencing her ability to understand and speak (german). in crises, she wouldn't eat, it even went so far that she didn't drink for weeks and only ate melons to quench her thirst. to top it all of, she had amnesia and could not remember things that had occurred when she had been in another state of her illness. the more physical symptoms were disorders of her eyes and a neuralgia of her face; the common therapy of this led to an addiction to morphin and chlorale.

eventually, her father died. the news was held from her, but she soon realized the fact and fell into a state of numbness, followed by an episode with the mentioned symptoms so severe she was delivered to the sanitarium at inzersdorf. here she was treated by dr. breuer, who published her case together with sigmund freud as the case of anna o. the development and supposed healing of her hysteria can be found in the common literature. to me, the most interesting part was that she was healing herself by telling stories - daydreams, little fairy tales and such. she called it "talking cure" and "chimney-sweeping", as if her affliction was due to an overcrowded imagination, an overflowing and constipation of her mind.

the end of her illness cannot be determined, neither the success of dr. breuer's therapy. still there is one thing he wrote about her that really catches on: he describes her as "of notable intelligence", her intellect "sound" and capable, if not requiring to be fed "a solid intellectual diet". he attests a rich and poetic talent, controlled by sharp and critical wit.

the story of anna o. ended with dr. breuer's report. bertha pappenheim was maybe never completely cured, but she moved on to greener pastures than the mental home.

when she was 29, she went to frankfurt with her mother. here, the large family was not only working charity - as is required by jewish faith - but was also active as patrons of art and sience. here she began writing and translating jewish literature anonymously, later under the pseudonym of p. berthold. her translations concentrated on texts concerning the role of the woman in judaism; also she translated m. wollstonecrafts "a vindication of the rights of women" in 1895. by that time, she had also taken head of the orphanage were she had started as a charity worker. in her time as head mistress, she changed the goal of girls' education in charity homes from becoming a wife and mother to becoming professionally and thus financially independent.

apart from co-founding and presiding different women's rights associations, she scandalized the jewish community in her battle against white slavery and prostitution by pointing out not only jewish women as victims, but also jewish men as perpetrators. she was critical of judaism and at the same time managed to remain pious and devoted to jewish faith and tradition.

when she founded her own home for fallen women in neu-isenburg near frankfurt, based on the israelite benevolent society, she established an education aiming at women's independence and the principle of follow-up care. she build her house as substitute for a home for her girls, and while the interior was sparse and accommodation spartanic, the jewish calendary and culture was held up as rule. still, her home was considered maybe not dangerous but dubious by the community. support for women who in whatever way have fallen from grace - illegitimate children, prostitution and such - is no more expectable within judaism as in most other major religions. bertha pappenheim not only took care of women who weren't even considered jewish anymore after being rejected from their families, she fed them, educated them and led them into stable, healthy and respectable lives, but she also pressed on the responsiblities of men who were always involved, as procurers, customers, originators.

of course, at the dawn of the third reich, which she still lived to see, antisemitic repressions became unavoidable. the children from her home, who had gone to the general schools in neu-isenburg, soon were expelled and had to visit a jewish school in frankfurt. in her last years, already ravaged by cancer, she even had to go through an examination by the gestapo, because a feeble-minded girl from her house had made a derogatory comment on hitler - funny enough, this seemed to make up an paradoxon for the staatspolizei: if she has wits enough to talk down our führer, she can't be that dumb. bertha pappenheim went to the interrogation on 16th april 1936 and spoke her mind... or maybe she just seemed harmless enough; nothing came of it.

bertha pappenheim did not have to see her home, that had grown from one single building to a complex of four houses inculding a section for pregnant and postpartum women, be burnt down to its grounds on 10th november 1938, the day after reichspogromnacht. she died, nursed by her friend of many years hannah karminski, on 28th may 1936. her home for fallen women was resolved by the nsdap on 31st march 1942, its inhabitants deported to theresienstadt, where most of them died.

this is, as i mentioned above, only a summary of the german wikipedia text. i excluded the short historical stub on the formings and conglomerations of women's societies in which bertha pappenheim was involved; also, i have no knowledge of her writing and scientific work. still, a woman who started out as the first example of the hysteric female and ended with such greatness, stability and wisdom, should be credited in this my humble blog. feel invited to find out more about her; i know i do.