Jeanne Berta Semmig
An ode to friendship and the written word with Jeanne Berta Semmig on her 150th birthday
Jeanne Berta Semmig was a very subtle, strong and admirable woman, whose passing on 28 July 1958 caused great sadness. Nevertheless, the committed teacher and polyphonic writer, who spent the rest of her life in Radebeul, has been almost forgotten.
She was born in Orleans on 16 May 1867, her first name a reminiscence of the flamboyant heroine of her native city. Her father, Dr Friedrich Hermann Semmig from Döbeln, initially worked at a school in Leipzig. Due to his involvement in the bourgeois May Uprising in Dresden in 1849, he had to flee to France like Richard Wagner and others. His exile was characterised by studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and many years as a German teacher in Orleans. It was not until 1870 that he was able to return to Leipzig via England with his family (his wife Adèle née Cornichon and their two daughters Jeanne Berthe and Adèle Armanda), where he worked as a professor of French and later as a freelance author. Jeanne Berta's love of teaching and writing was thus passed on to her by this impressive father figure. In 1921, she set him a literary monument in her book "The Ways of a German". Unfortunately, she lost her mother at an early age: in 1873, when her third sister Arminia, a Leipzig schoolchild, was born. 10 years later, her path led her to the teacher training seminar in Callnberg/Lichtenstein.
From 1886 to 1890, she was employed as a tutor for the daughters of Lord Chamberlain von Minckwitz in Altenburg, before taking up a 40-year position as a dedicated primary school teacher at the 6th District School in Dresden's Old Town in 1891. She turned down various offers from middle-class schools so as not to leave "the children of the people".
She made her debut as a writer early on in her teaching career when she published poems, stories and novellas in magazines. Her first book, a volume of poetry, was published in 1897 and various publishers subsequently added further collections of poetry, novellas and fiction to their repertoire. Her poem "The Story of Poor Isolde Weißhand and Mr Tristan" (1919) was much talked about. In 1927, at the age of 60, she had her first memoirs published ("Ich träum' mich als Kind zurücke. Erinnerungen"). The rise of the Nazis and the Second World War marked a break in her writing. It was not until 1947 that "Jeanne d'Arc" was the next notable new publication.
She is characterised as modest, quiet and perceptive. In addition, she always made more fuss about others than about herself, even when her own world almost collapsed. Her Dresden flat was damaged by aerial bombs as early as 1944, but she was able to move back in. The bombing in February 1945 was all the more devastating, destroying her flat and her artistic life's work in one fell swoop. Fortunately, her life, her mindset and her creative energy were not. The account of the 78-year-old's journey alone away from the burning old town on the ferry across to Radebeul makes disturbing reading; many people on the right bank of the Elbe seem not to have realised the extent of what had happened. The trams were also still running, one of them taking the fleeing passengers to Lößnitz. Two chatting gentlemen are sitting inside and she doesn't seem to have made a dismayed impression either, because the friends she is seeking shelter with want to visit an aunt in Dresden. They only get as far as Neustadt station, then they realise and turn back.
Jeanne Berta Semmig finally found a new home and poet's parlour in the Altfriedstein after-work home, where she wrote, received friends or simply enjoyed the view over the Niederlößnitz treetops to Cossebaude until her death. Her later work is characterised above all by her biography of Louise Otto-Peters, the pioneer of the German women's movement. Her second biography "Aus acht Jahrzenten" (1975) was published posthumously. She received much praise for her life's work as a writer, e.g. in the form of the Clara Zetkin Medal.
But also from the great poet Hermann Hesse, with whom she maintained a close pen friendship for over 50 years. Their first meeting in 1907 was arranged by Odenwald priest Karl Ernst Knodt, a patron of young talented poets at the time. She then visited Hesse in Switzerland in 1930. Although these two meetings were to remain the only ones, they were always close in spirit. The two never ceased their correspondence, which eventually totalled almost 130 letters. She also faithfully cultivated a number of friendships with well-known poets, artists and scholars. She was also active in literary circles such as the "Literary Association of Dresden" and the "Wilhelm-Raabe-Circle". She was president of the "Literary Association of German Women", where she devoted herself to two of her favourite causes: International understanding (especially with France) and humanist commitment.
She remained single and confessed that friendships had always been the greatest gift in her life. With such a full life, with all its highs and lows, and yet always committed to soft tones, at some point even the strongest light of life dims. And so Jeanne Berta Semmig passed away peacefully on a rainy summer night. As her work and influence are hardly recognised any more, she should be remembered here.
Maren Gündel, City Archive
Published in: Radebeul Official Gazette, May 2017