bavarikon4UThe estate of Eva countess von Baudissin (1869–1943) – Baudissiana
Eva countess von Baudissin (1869–1943) belongs to a group of writers who were highly successful in the early twentieth century and yet were forgotten. The journalist, who was born in Lübeck and later lived in Munich, wrote features, essays and sketches for diverse newspapers and also worked for radio and film. In 1891, she married the officer and writer Wolf Ernst Hugo Emil von Baudissin (1867–1929), whom she divorced in 1906. She was a member of the Münchner Verein für Fraueninteressen (Munich Association for Women’s Interests) and thus a member of the civic women’s movement of Bavaria; in 1913 she joined the Münchner Schriftstellerinnen-Verein (Munich Writers’ Association), founded by the authors and women’s rights activists Emma Haushofer-Merk and Carry Brachvogel. In 1914, Baudissin founded the Münchner Frauenclub (Munich Women’s Club). Like many of her fellow writers, she published at times under a male pseudonym, here Bernhard von Brandenburg. Of her extensive oeuvre, today only the non-fiction books, e.g. the book of etiquette “Spemanns goldenes Buch der Sitten” (Book of Decorum, 1901), written by her and her husband, or her highly touristic travelogues in “Sie am Seil” (She on a Rope about her experiences as an alpinist, 1914) are known.
The estate consists of four large and eight flat boxes. In addition to literary manuscripts, letters and documents of Baudissin’s life, it also contains materials from her husband, the publisher and writer Wolf Ernst Hugo Emil count von Baudissin, as well as from the alpine guide Alfred Steinitzer (1862–1938). The estate is fully available.
Parts of the estate have been digitised for bavarikon and are accessible here. Interesting pieces are, for example, the manuscript of the novel “Sie am Seil” or the typescript for the novel “Eine junge Dame, welche” (A Young Lady Who), which is accompanied by a rejection letter from the publishing house Rohrbacher of 1942. They did not wish to publish the book due to a shortage of paper and lack of personnel.
>> This estate belongs to the collection of estates from the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library).