Else Ury (1 November 1877 – 13 January 1943) was a German-Jewish novelist and children's book author. Her best-known character is the blonde doctor's daughter Annemarie Braun, whose life from childhood to old age is told in the ten volumes of the highly successful Nesthäkchen series.
The books, the six-part TV series Nesthäkchen (1983), based on the first three volumes, as well as the new DVD edition (2005) caught the attention of millions of readers and viewers.Patricia M. Mazón. Gender and the Modern Research University: The Admission of Women to German Higher Education, 1865–1914. Stanford University Press; 1 edition (August 4, 2003) pp 166-175Marianne Brentzel. Nesthäkchen kommt ins KZ. FISCHER Taschenbuch; Auflage: 1., Aufl. (März 2003)Barbara Asper. Wiedersehen mit Nesthäkchen: Else Ury aus heutiger Sicht. TEXTPUNKT Verlag; Auflage: 1., Aufl. (1. November 2007) During Ury's lifetime Nesthäkchen und der Weltkrieg (Nesthäkchen and the World War), the fourth volume, was the most popular.
Else Ury was a member of the German Bürgertum (middle class). She was pulled between patriotic German citizenship and Jewish cultural heritage. This situation is reflected in her writings, although the Nesthäkchen books make no references to Judaism.Lüke, Martina. "Else Ury – A Representative of the German-Jewish Bürgertum. Not an Essence but a Positioning": German-Jewish Women Writers 1900-38. Eds. Godela Weiss-Sussex and Andrea Hammel. Martin Meidenbauer Verlag: München, 2009 and Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies; School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2009 (Publication of the Institute of Germanic Studies, 93). 77-93. In 1943, Else Ury was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she is thought to have died the day after her arrival.
Life Else Ury was born in Berlin on 1 November 1877, into a family of Jewish merchants. Her happy childhood and her life with the extended families Ury and Heymann provided the environment and inspiration to write her books. The prosperous bourgeois household with cook, governess, housemaid, doorman, and impressive furniture which is described by Else Ury in her Nesthäkchen series or in Studierte Mädel (1906) is a direct reflection of her life in Berlin, particularly after moving to the Kantstraße in Charlottenburg, and later on to Kaiserdamm. While her father Emil (1835–1920) became a successful merchant, her mother Franziska Ury (1847-1940) represented the German Bildungsbürgertum (educated middle class). Franziska passed her interest in classic and modern literature, the arts, and music on to her children.
Sustained by these concepts of Bildung (education), Else Ury's siblings started successful middle class careers: Ludwig (1870–1963) became a lawyer, Hans (1873–1937) a medical doctor. Käthe (7 October 1881 – 30 October 1944, murdered at Auschwitz), before getting married and starting a family, planned to train as a teacher. Else, however, despite attending the Lyzeum Königliche Luisenschule, chose not to pursue a profession. She started writing, under a pen name, for the Vossische Zeitung. In 1905, her first book, Was das Sonntagskind Erlauscht (What the Lucky Child Heard), was published by the Globus Verlag. This collection of thirty-eight moral tales promotes pedagogical ideals such as loyalty, honesty, and faithfulness. Ury's subsequent book Goldblondchen (1908) earned her an honorary remark by the influential Jugendschriftenwarte, and a further five publications built on this success, until, eventually, the Nesthäkchen series was published between 1918 and 1925 and made her a famous author.
With over thirty-nine books Else Ury was not only one of the most prolific female writers of her time, she was also one of the most successful. The combination of an educated mind, humour and compassionate femininity made her books into best-sellers, and she was highly celebrated. On her fiftieth birthday, on 1 November 1927, for instance, her publisher, Meidingers Jugendschriften Verlag, honoured her with a large reception at the famous Hotel Adlon.
Her writing made Else Ury rich. Not by an inheritance from her well-to-do father, but from her own earnings, she acquired a vacation home in Krummhübel (Karpacz) in the Riesengebirge. She dubbed the home Haus Nesthäkchen. By 1933, Ury had received 250,000 RM royalties for Nesthäkchen and another series, Professor's Twins, an astronomical sum at the nadir of the Great Depression. Millions of her fans bought her books, heard them read on the radio, attended her receptions, and read her newspaper columns. In the Weimar Republic, Else Ury had achieved superstar status.
Hollywood By 1939, Else Ury's situation in Germany had become untenable, and she had no hope that it would improve. Early that year she tried to market her work in the United Kingdom and the US, aspiring to establish an economic basis for emigration. She sent her stories to acquaintances in London, among them her 20-year-old nephew Klaus Heymann, who had immigrated to England because he was not allowed to study in Germany. But Klaus knew no one capable of making a literary English translation of her work. More promising was her contact with nephew Fritz, who had immigrated to England and was acquainted with a Berlin literary agent, Karl Ludwig Schröder. Schröder, in turn, was in contact with the Hollywood agent Paul Kohner, and knew that Hollywood was looking for material for its child stars. In a letter to Kohner, 10 March 1939, Schröder refers to Else Ury: "If a company in the USA has a child film star, I will make them aware of the non-aryan German writer Else Ury (millions of copies in print), whom I represent. I can send copies of her books from Berlin if they are not available. Her works have not been translated into English, although there are French, Dutch, and Norwegian editions." Kohner answered: "Material for child stars is of extraordinary interest. I ask you to send me as soon as possible any of Else Ury's books that might lend themselves to filming." Schröder's German-Jewish wife had immigrated to Rome, and Schröder was back and forth between Rome and Berlin. He wrote to Kohner, referring to his Berlin address, "because of the mail censor, please only write in terms that cannot be misunderstood". In his next letter, Schröder promised, "I write again about Else Ury and her children's books. I will immediately send you a selection of them if they can still be posted from Germany...I must say again that these books, published in the millions, are appropriate for children of all ages. For Shirley Temple, Ury's books would be just as good as the Swiss book Heidi." Kohner, who received this letter 2 June 1939, responded immediately, "We are awaiting your report here... But if you think that a book by Ury would be equally appropriate for Shirley Temple as Heidi, you're not acquainted with the fact that Heidi is a hugely successful and famous book in America." Apparently, in July 1939 (the letter is undated), Else Ury herself wrote to Kohner. She gave her address as "Solinger Straße 87, z. Zt. Krummhübel, Riesengebirge, Haus Nesthäkchen". Ury indicated that she had included volume 4, Nesthäkchen and the World War, and she described in general terms the contents of the other volumes. Ury suggested that the lead role in volume 6, Nesthäkchen Flies From the Nest, could be played by a big girl; a child star could take the role of Nesthäkchen's daughter in volume 7, Nesthäkchen and Her Chicks. Ury briefly mentions that the later volumes 8–10 could serve as a conclusion for the film, or the beginning of part two. She also suggested her book Baumeisters Rangen that, in her opinion, would make a good film story. She promised to send the books to Kohner's agency, and gave the address of her brother Ludwig as her business correspondent. Kohner answered 2 August 1939: "Dear Madam, I have your undated letter from last month, and I understand that Herr Karl L. Schröder will send me a number of your children's books. As soon as I receive them, I will have synopses prepared. You will have further information from me either at your address or the address of your brother. In the meantime, I send you warm greetings. (Paul Kohner)." The outbreak of World War II, 1 September 1939, ended all Ury's contacts and hopes. In Kohner's files, there is no further reference to Else Ury. Nor did she correspond again with Karl L. Schröder, who died in Rome, 23 September 1940.Barbara Asper, Hannelore Kempin, Bettina Münchmeyer-Schöneberg. Wiedersehen mit Nesthäkchen: Else Ury aus heutiger Sicht. TEXTPUNKT Verlag; Auflage: 1 (1. November 2007) pp 131-132.
Deportation and death
As a Jew during the Holocaust, Ury was barred from publishing. She was stripped of her possessions and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with 1190 other Berlin Jews on 12 January 1943. Ury received new media attention in 1992 through 's biography Nesthäkchen kommt ins KZ, and in 1995 a group of school girls saw her name written on a suitcase while on a school visit to Auschwitz. They were intrigued, looked through deportation lists and wrote a school report about Ury's deportation to the camp. Based on this, their teacher reported to the press that Ury had died on 13 January 1943. According to Steven Lehrer, she died in a gas chamber operated by guards from the Schutzstaffel in the camp.
Postwar republication and television adaptation After the war, Ury's books were re-published. An edited version of the Nesthäkchen series was issued by Hoch Verlag in 1952. The first volume was entitled, "Nesthäkchen and her Dolls". The only significant alteration: The fourth volume, "Nesthäkchen and the World War" (referring to the First World War), was not reprinted. A short final chapter in the third volume summarized the events of the fourth volume to provide continuity of the series.
The remaining nine volumes have been repeatedly reprinted, their total circulation more than seven million copies. German public television broadcaster ZDF filmed the beginning of the Nesthäkchen series as a 1983 Christmas show. In 2005, the ZDF programs were issued on DVD.
Memorials to Else Ury Marianne Brentzel published a 1994 biography of Ury with the title, Nesthäkchen arrives in the Concentration Camp which drew widespread public attention to Ury's murder at Auschwitz. Memorials to Ury have been placed in Berlin and Karpacz (the location of her vacation home). Her vacation home, located in present-day Poland, bears the title "Dom Nesthäkchen (the Nesthäkchen House)". After the war, the "Jew house" in Berlin-Moabit, Solingerstraße 10, her last Berlin residence before she was deported to Auschwitz, was demolished. An elevated memorial paving stone was laid in front, which reminds passers-by of Ury and her fellow Holocaust victims. An S-Bahn arch in Charlottenburg is named in her honor. A cenotaph in Berlin's Weissensee Jewish Cemetery (Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee) commemorates her as well.
Nesthäkchen and the World War