Siegfried Jacoby Family Collection
Scope and Content Note
The Siegfried Jacoby Family Collection contains the papers of family members, largely focusing on their literary accomplishments. Among the papers found in this collection are many manuscripts of the writing of Siegfried Jacoby and his daughter Ursula Bunzl. There is also extensive correspondence between Siegfried and Selma Jacoby to their daughter, as well as correspondence with other family members and friends of Ursula Jacoby, some personal papers, and an herbarium by Siegfried Jacoby.
The literary efforts of Jacoby family members make up a large portion of the papers here. Examples of Siegfried Jacoby's writing will be found in two areas of the collection. Series I includes a small amount of his business writing, written under the pseudonym Fritz Blum. This series contains his published booklet Einführung von Neuheiten, as well as reviews and advertisements for it; related correspondence consists of communication with publishers as well as some consultations with a few businesses regarding advertising and promotion of their products. Series III holds the bulk of Siegfried Jacoby's literary work, however. This series has many drafts of unpublished novels, plays, essays, and short stories. The works cover numerous topics, frequently containing philosophical reflections by characters. Series III also includes clippings from newspapers that published his work. Series IV contains the work of Ursula Bunzl, who often worked under the name Ursel Ellen Jacoby (later Bunzl). Much of her writing took the form of translations from French into her native German. Documentation on her work is comprised of drafts of her translations, correspondence with publishers and authors, notebooks that include a scrapbook of her published translations and reviews, and some published newspaper clippings with similar material. This series has one folder of Ursula Bunzl's own original work, which consists of poetry and some short stories.
This collection additionally holds a significant amount of correspondence, especially between family members. The bulk of this correspondence is to Ursula Bunzl and her family from her parents during the late 1920s through the 1930s, when the Bunzls primarily resided in Vienna. These letters and postcards primarily pertain to typical family concerns, such as updates on news and the activities of various family members. Letters depict Ursula's 1927 stay in Paris as well as a Jacoby trip to Capri and mention of the family's emigration, among diverse issues. Further material relating to notable events in the family's life is included in Series I, which consists of the family's personal papers. Among such papers is a folder of documentation concerning the family's immigration to Argentina and some papers relating to Siegfried Jacoby's work during World War I. In addition, there is a notebook that documents Friedrich (Fritz) Jacoby's early years as well as another that holds recipes possibly used by the Jacoby family. Finally, Siegfried Jacoby's interest in botany is depicted in Series V, which is comprised of Siegfried Jacoby's herbarium. The herbarium consists of notebooks with plant pressings and a few notes.
Dates
- Creation: 1892-1991
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1920-1939
Creator
- Bunzl, Thomas (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German, French, and Spanish.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical Note
Siegfried Jacoby was born on February 2, 1877 in Marggrabowa, East Prussia (now Olecko, Poland). He lived in Berlin, where he worked as an advertiser and businessman under the nomme de travail "Fritz Blum." In addition, Siegfried was a prolific author, writing numerous plays, short stories, essays, and poems, as well as writing for several newspapers. Siegfried's chief hobby was botany, in the course of which he assembled many journals of plant pressings and descriptions. On April 10, 1906, Siegfried married Selma (spelled Sellma on the birth certificate) Cohn from Schwerin an der Warthe (now Skwierzyna, Poland). Siegfried and Selma had two children. Their son, Friedrich Walther (Fritz), was born on June 1, 1909. Fritz died in Wernigerode in 1929. The Jacobys' daughter, Ursula Ellen (usually known as Ursel, also called Ulle), was born on October 25, 1907. Ursel was quite well-educated, being fluent in English and French. She followed in her father's literary footsteps as an author and translator. As a child, Ursula won or placed in several youth writing contests. As a young women in the 1920s, she worked as a translator for several regional papers. Between March and May 1927, Ursel went to Paris.
In October 1932, Ursel married Max Bunzl, son of the Viennese Kommerzialrat Martin and Margrete (Grete) Bunzl. Max worked for his father's company. Ursel and Max lived in Frankfurt am Main and thereafter in Vienna. In December 1934, Ursula and Max had a son, Tom (Tommy). On October 3, 1937, the Bunzls had another son, Claudi (also known as Clausi or Klausi). The next year, the family left Austria for England. From there, Max went to Palestine (where he had relatives) and Ursula and Claudi went to Argentina (where Claudi became Claudio).
In 1939, Selma and Siegfried Jacoby left Germany, traveling like their daughter to London. Later that year, the Jacobys joined their daughter and grandson in Argentina. The Jacoby-Bunzls lived in Buenos Aires, Conesa, and Rio Caballos while in Argentina. Siegfried, or Sigfrido, continued to write in German and Spanish, sometimes using the nomme du plume "Siegfried Jacoby-Wilde" (Sigfried may have been fond of Oscar Wilde). Eventually, Max (or Maximo) joined his family in Argentina.
Little information is available about the Jacobys or Bunzls after the war. In 1947, Ursula returned to Europe, although it is unclear where. By the 1960s she had moved to London. The fate of her parents, husband, and child is unclear.
Extent
6.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection contains the papers of members of the Siegfried Jacoby family, depicting the family's private lives as well as their literary work. Most prominent among the papers here are many unpublished manuscripts, family correspondence, and Siegfried Jacoby's herbarium. There is also personal correspondence with others, some professional correspondence, official and personal papers, newspaper clippings, and a few notebooks and family photographs.
Microfilm
Collection is available on 9 reels of microfilm (MF 1016).
- Reel 1: 1/1-2/5
- Reel 2: 2/6-3/1
- Reel 3: 3/2-4/2
- Reel 4: 4/3-4/8
- Reel 5: 5/1-5/4
- Reel 6: 5/5-6/2
- Reel 7: 6/3-7/3
- Reel 8: 7/4-8/6
- Reel 9: 8/7-9/7
Processing Information
This collection was previously processed by LBI staff, and the previous order of series was retained when the collection was reprocessed in preparation of the EAD finding aid. At this time, further description was added to the finding aid and some folder titles were slightly adjusted to reflect more accurately upon folder contents. Some of Siegfried Jacoby's manuscripts have been briefly summarized by LBI volunteer Mirra Vission; these summaries have been retained with the manuscripts they describe.
Superfluous copies of Siegfried Jacoby's unmarked typescripts were discarded from the collection during reprocessing. Extra copies of his published booklet were additionally removed at this time.
Subject
- Jacoby, Siegfried, 1877-1942 (Person)
- Bunzl, Ursula, 1907- (Person)
- Jacoby family (Family)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Occupation
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Siegfried Jacoby Family 1892-1991 AR 6517 / MF 1016
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Dianne Ritchey and LBI Staff
- Date
- © 2009
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from SiegfriedJacobyFamily.xml
Revision Statements
- February 18, 2015 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
