Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Annemarie Schwarzenbach: Swiss Photo-journalist of the 1930s

1998; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 22; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03087298.1998.10443882

2150-7295

Regina Dieterle,

German History and Society

Abstract Annemarie Schwarzenbach belonged to the economically and politically influential Schwarzenbach-Wille clan. Her father, Alfred Schwarzenbach, was a textile magnate and her grandfather, Ulrich Wille, had been the Swiss general in the First World War who was married to a von Bismarck. Her mother, Renee Schwarzenbach-Wille, is said to have almost bled to death at the birth of her daughter and to have clung to her fiercely all her life. Terrible feelings ofloneliness were later to torment this daughter, who remained tied to her mother in a kind of love-hate relationship. Nevertheless, she kept herself emphatically at a distance from her parental home, setting herself apart from a family who were ardent admirers of Hindenburg and later of Hider. She was left wing and anti-military, hated fascism and scorned chauvinism. She was a lesbian, who travelled to distant lands, documenting the poverty of others and seeking her true self She was a morphine addict who destroyed her body and died a painful, lingering death at the age of 34. She left behind a literary æuvre, many journalistic essays, and an estimated 3000 photographs. Personal letters which would have provided an important insight into her fascinating life were destroyed by her mother immediately after her death in 1942.