All for art? Female fates in Braunschweig
The changeable story of four female artist from Braunschweig is the center of attention this saturday. The Arbeitskreis Andere Geschichte invited once more to one of its city walks. This time it is about the fate of actrices and writers whose occupation was seen as dingy for a long time. On focus are Frederike Carolline Neuber, Ingeborg Riehl, Caroline Auguste Fischer und Ina Seidel. At that time noboday talked about Me-too, the problems of the ladies however, were at least as severe as they are today.
Staatstheater Braunschweig
The walk starts at the fountain in front of the Staatstheater. We witness a marvellous autumn day. The sun made it through the clouds during the day and warms our faces and limbs. We start on time at three o’clock: Sabine Ahrens and Lena Kreie are our guides today. The tour starts with the history of the Staatstheather at Braunschweig and it’s a superlative: The Staatstheater is the oldest public multidisciplinary theatre of Germany. The beginnings as theatre royale go back to 1690. Emilia Galotti (1772) and Faust (1829) had it premiere here.
Friederike Caroline Neuber
We walk from the Staatstheeater to the museum park. At first a European chestnut catches my eyes with its beauty. The leaves are shining bright in the midday sun, some of the prickly nuts have already been opened, the brown colour of the chestnuts shines through. All together it is a magnificent play of colours. I am sidetracked for a moment. My thoughts then return to the narrative about Friederike Caroline Neuber, the first biography of the day. And it is a ripsnorter. The lady did not only kick out the tomfool from theatre, she also beared a lot of tragedies in her life.
Ingeborg Riehl
The second biography of the day concentrates on Ingeborg Riehl, who was born in 1918 at Essen. She moved to Braunschweig shortly after the war with her husband Hans Caninenberg. She was that negatively surprised by Braunschweig’s degree of destruction that she thought about leaving right away. Actually remained true to the city until the end of her life and belong more than sixty years to the theatre ensemble.
Caroline Auguste Fischer
We are chaning positions again and adjourn to the Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Platz. The focus is now on Caroline Auguste Fischer. Again this lady was not too lucky in her life. Consistently bothered with money troubles she was also divorced guilty from the Danish Christoph Johann Rudolph Christiani and to deliver her son to him – she never saw him again. Her second marriage to the writer Christian August Fischer was divorced as well. This time however the guilt was on the husband and she could keep her son. Another relation was affected by the need for money of her partner.
Ina Seidel
Our last stop is at the Löwenwall, directly at the river Oker. We look at the former residential building of the controversial artist Ina Seidel. Seidel became disreputable during the Nazi era when she spoke out positively about the regime. Namely she is said to be sorry in retrospect for that but she carried a stigma from now on. Despite that a girl’s grammar school was named after her which does not exist meanwhile and has been changed into a professional school.
