Ernst Collin Collection
Scope and Content Note
The collection contains writings, mostly poems, of Ernst Collin, as well as correspondence from numerous prominent figures in the art and intellectual world of pre-WWII Germany.
Folder 1 contains a biographical essay written by Collin's wife, Margarete, in which she recounts his early love affairs, with both men and women. The writings are mostly poems and other short manuscripts and notes.
The correspondence and other materials in folder 2 include letters from Max Brod, F. Dornseiff, Hirsch, Erich Kahler, G. Karpeles, and Hans Purrmann and material about Rudolf Levy and Martha Kassel. There is also a poem written by Josef Andreas Welten of Prague, a child who was killed at Auschwitz. Folder 3 contains correspondence to his wife, Margarete Weisgerber-Collin, from Julius Bab, Heinz Braune, Ernst Feder, Erich Kahler, Erich Lichtenstein, Else Lasker-Schueler, and a eulogy for Albert Weisgerber.
Dates
- Creation: 1899-1966
Creator
- Collin, Ernst, 1882-1953 (Person)
Language of Materials
This collection is in German.
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
Ernst Heinrich Schoenfeld was born in Nordhausen on March 10, 1882 to Fritz Schoenfeld and Adele nee Bon. His father died when he was 3 years old and his mother remarried Adolf Collin. Ernst grew up in Berlin and attended a private boys school. His older brother, Paul, to whom he was very close, died of diphtheria when Ernst was 13. In high school Ernst fell in love with one of his fellow (male) students and wrote of this in his diary and a series of poems. Some of these poems were published when he was 19 years old by the Axel Juncker publishing house under the title Lieder eines Knaben [ Songs of a boy ] and were well received. He began his university studies in Berlin, then moved to Munich where he quickly became attached to a circle of artists, writers, and other intellectuals. Here he became close friends with the painters Rudolf Levy and Hans Purrmann; he had become close to Julius Bab already in Berlin. He worked as a language teacher in London and Turkey, but returned to Germany to enlist at the start of WWI. He survived the war and married the widow of the painter Albert Weisgerber. He returned to Berlin and worked as a tutor and then as an archivist for the company Dreyfus & Co., until its Aryanization. He moved to Great Britain in the late 1930s and died there on March 19, 1953.
Extent
0.25 Linear Feet
Abstract
The collection contains writings, mostly poems, of Ernst Collin, as well as correspondence from numerous prominent figures in the art and intellectual world of pre-WWII Germany.
Other Finding Aid
The original 3-page German-language inventory is in folder 1.
Bibliography
Photographs removed to Photograph Collection
Subject
- Bab, Julius, 1880-1955 (Person)
- Brod, Max, 1884-1968 (Person)
- Kahler, Erich, 1885-1970 (Person)
- Lasker-Schüler, Else, 1869-1945 (Person)
- Feder, Ernst, 1881-1964 (Person)
- Weisgerber, Albert, 1878-1915 (Person)
- Weisgerber-Collin, Margarete, 1878- (Person)
- Lichtenstein, Erich (Person)
- Levy, Rudolf, 1875-1944 (Person)
- Purrmann, Hans, 1880-1966 (Person)
- Dornseiff, Franz, 1888-1960 (Person)
- Braune, Heinz (Person)
- Feder, Ernst, 1881-1964 (Person)
- Welten, Josef-Andreas (Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Ernst Collin Collection, 1899-1966 AR 2916
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Ilse Turnheim and Julie Dawson
- Date
- © 2011
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- March 21, 2012 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
