Portrait picture of Jenny Weleminsky and her husband Friedrich c. 1905–1910Schloss Thalheim, KapellnSchloss Thalheim under renovation in 2013Jenny Weleminsky much admired Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) – pictured here in an 1841 lithograph by Josef Kriehuber – who was regarded as the national poet of Austria.
Jenny Weleminsky (néeElbogen; 12 June 1882 – 4 February 1957)[1][2] was a German-speaking Esperantist and translator who was born in Thalheim, Lower Austria[3] and brought up there and in Vienna. Some of her translations of works by Franz Grillparzer and other notable Austrian writers were published in the literary magazine Literatura Mondo (Literary World), which became home to an influential group of authors collectively known as Budapeŝto skolo, the Budapest school of Esperanto literature.[4]
Early life and education
Jenny Elbogen was born into a Jewish family on 12 June 1882 at Schloss Thalheim,[note 1] Lower Austria, the youngest child of Guido Elbogen (1845, Jungbrunzlau – 1918, Schloss Thalheim) who became President of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Vienna,[5][6] and his wife Rosalie (Ali) (née Schwabacher; 1850, Paris – 1940, Sartrouville, Île-de-France),[7] whom he married in 1868 in Paris. She had two sisters (Antoinette (1871–1901) and Helene (1878–1882), who died in infancy); and a brother (Heinrich, also known as Henri; 1872–1927).[2]
Politically she had very determinate and fixed views, many inherited from her father. Jenny Elbogen was an ardent Habsburg monarchist and wished to see the Habsburg heir, Otto von Habsburg, restored to the Austrian throne after the Second World War. However, she was also an internationalist, as demonstrated by her enthusiasm for Esperanto. She opposed the Zionist movement's call for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people and ceased all contact with two of her daughters after they left Austria to live in Mandatory Palestine.
Her father Guido Elbogen had donated money towards the construction of a new synagogue (built in 1913) in Sankt Pölten.[9]
Facing Nazi persecution for being Jewish, they found sanctuary in 1939 in the United Kingdom[3][12] where she continued to translate books into Esperanto, wrote poetry and taught English to other refugees.[12]
After the Second World War and the death of her husband, Jenny Weleminsky spent several years in Vienna, returning eventually to London, where she died of breast cancer on 4 February 1957, aged 74.[2]
She and her husband had four children together. Two of their daughters emigrated in the early 1930s to Mandatory Palestine where they took new names – Eliesabeth (born 1909) became Jardenah, and Dorothea (born 1912) was known as Leah. Their eldest daughter, Marianne (born 1906), and their son, Anton[note 2] (born 1908), moved to Britain just before the Second World War.
^Nagel, Bernhard; Nautz, Jürgen P (1999). Nationale Konflikte und monetäre Einheit: ein Plädoyer für die Währungsunion (in German). Vienna: Passagen Verlag. p. 92.
^"Thalheim". Burgen-Austria.com ("Castles in Austria"). 17 September 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
^Zemmin, H; Wille, K (October 1926). "Beitrag zur Tuberkulosetherapie mit Tuberculomucin (Contribution to tuberculosis therapy with tuberculomucin)". Beiträge zur Klinik der Tuberkulose und Spezifischen Tuberkulose-Forschung (Contributions to Clinical Tuberculosis and Tuberculosis – Specific Research). 64 (5–6): 679–682. doi:10.1007/BF02093958. ISSN0341-2040. S2CID841950.
