Mary Ann Brodie lived at 30 Loxley Road, Wandsworth Common. She died aged 68 on 8 June 1920.
The deeds were received in a bundle together. It is not clear if they are associated.
Edwin Fairland was an assistant surgeon in the 21 Regiment Hussars, Lucknow. He married Emma Thomson in Lucknow on 3 November 1870. They had three daughters. Emma Fairland died on 21 October 1897 and Edwin Fairland died on 6 August 1909. Edwin Fairland died at the home of his daughter, Mrs Mabel Alice Harrison of 76 Prince of Wales Mansions, Battersea.
The Putney Literary and Debating Society existed from 1922 to 1983, although the society was suspended during the Second World War. Meeting places included Zeeta House, Upper Richmond Road and Lady North Hall, YMCA, Ravenna Road. Members included Sir Hugh Linstead, MP, who was president of the society, 1972-1983, Hugh Jenkins MP and David Mellor MP.
Roehampton Horticultural Society was founded in 1873.
The Battersea Field Club and Literary and Scientific Society was formed on 10th January 1895 and was a development of the University Extension Society - Battersea Students Association, which had started in 1890. In 1902 the name was changed to the Battersea Field Club and the society was affiliated to the South East Union of Scientific Societies and the Photographic Survey and Record of Surrey. In 1906 it was associated with the British Association and finally disbanded in 1944.
Battersea Chess Club was founded in 1885 and is still in existence today.
Arthur Wellings was an auctioneer, land and estate agent in Southfields with offices at 8 Westbourne Terrace, Garratt Lane.
This site was part of the Clapham Junction Estate, Battersea, 5th portion Lot 660, originally part of the estates of Frederick Earl Spencer. Frontage 20' 3" Depth one side 70' on other 69' 11".
The company was set up by five Morgan brothers who imported crucibles from Germany. Following the 1851 Great Exhibition they won a contract to import the new American crucibles. In 1856 they bought the manufacturing rights from the American company and opened a small factory in Battersea. In 1857 the company was called the Patent Plumbago Crucible Company and they exhibited their new range of crucibles at Crystal Palace. The company expanded and the name was changed to the Morgan Crucible Company in 1872. The company also produced ceramic fibres, carbon brushes and other goods.
Where known, full details of the administrative history are in individual catalogue records.
The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea was created by the London Government Act 1899 from the former vestry of Battersea, and included Battersea, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and parts of Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common. In 1965 the borough was combined with the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to become the London Borough of Wandsworth. Battersea Town Hall, which was built by the Vestry of Battersea, was the administrative headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough, and was on Lavender Hill.
The Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth was formed as a result of the London Government Act 1899 from five civil parishes - Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting Graveney and Wandsworth. Previously these parishes were administered by the Wandsworth District Board of Works. When the metropolitan boroughs were replaced in 1965 Clapham and Streatham became part of the London Borough of Lambeth, and Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth were combined with Battersea to form the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Hotham Road School in Putney opened on 2nd June 1909, and was initially run by the London County Council. Many of the pupils were transfered from the Deodar Road School, which closed that year. In 1948 the name changed to Hotham School, and subsequently to Hotham Primary School. It is currently run by the London Borough of Wandsworth. In 1910 the Putney Evening School was established in the same building as Hotham School. This organisation was later known as Putney Evening Institute, and Hotham Adult Education Centre. It formed part of the Putney Adult Education Institute, which later became the Putney and Wandsworth Adult Education Institute and was incorporated into the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). In 1985 John Payne, Head of Adult Education at Hotham School, founded the Hotham School Social History Group. This group, with the help of past and present students and staff from the school and the adult centre, organised several events to celebrate the school's 80th anniversary in 1989, and also produced a number of publications about the history of the school. When the ILEA was dissolved in 1990, adult education ceased at Hotham.
The school was founded in 1819 and amalgamated with All Saints, Putney in 1928. All Saints was founded in 1858, and was on Putney Bridge Road. St Mary's School was on Charlwood Road.
The school was founded in 1863 and was on Trinity Road. In 1894 a separate site was acquired as a department for the Boys School, which was later the Infants School. The original school was bomb damaged.
Battersea Polytechnic Institute was a purpose built college which was founded in 1891 and opened in February 1894. The building was located in Battersea Park Road on the former site of the Albert Palace and was designed by the architect Edward Mountford who also designed Battersea Library and Battersea Town Hall. The Institute took on a more scientific and technical leaning from 1920, leading it to be renamed the Battersea College of Technology in 1957. In 1966 it became the University of Surrey and moved out to premises in Guildford two years later.
Elliott School is a mixed school in Pullman Gardens, Putney. It was opened in 1904 as the London County Council run Southfields School in Merton Road. The school changed its name in 1911 in tribute to Sir Charles Elliott, who was a civil servant in India and chairman of the managers of Southfield School for many years. The school became a comprehensive and moved to the Pullman Gardens site in 1956.
The first Wandle School on Garratt Lane was opened in 1904. The school was badly damaged by bombing during World War Two. The school was rebuilt and was reopened for junior and infant pupils on 30 April 1952.
Sir Walter St John's School was founded in 1700 and existed in Battersea until its closure in 1986. The school was founded by Sir Walter St John, 3rd Baronet, of Battersea and Lydiard Tregoze, in order to educate 20 young boys of the parish. As Battersea grew, the school expanded and in 1859 the school moved into a new building on Battersea High Street where it remained until its closure.
Wandsworth Technical Institute opened on Wandsworth High Street in 1895. New buildings were built for the Institute in the High Street in 1926. The Institute merged with the Putney College of Further Education in 1974. It is now known as South Thames College.
Mayfield School was a girls secondary school in Putney. It was also known as the Putney County Secondary School. The school closed in 1986 when it merged with Garratt Green school.
Battersea Men's Institute was opened in 1920. It was run by the London County Council and was housed in a former school building in Latchmere Road. The purpose of the Institute was to provide evening and weekend courses to interested men. The Institute was open to all men over the age of 18 who paid a small amount of money per term to attend classes. The classes were in practical subjects and were designed to be taken for interest rather than to further a career. Courses included cookery, music, poultry keeping, art, petrol engines, science, photographs and electricity. There were also social events and sports clubs. There were over 1100 members in 1929 and 3000 in the late 1930s. Women were admitted in the 1940s. The Institute also had further branches in Warple Way, Waldron Road and Magdalen Road, as well as making use of the facilities in local schools.
In 1700 a Trust was established by Sir Walter St John for the continued provision of a school to provide free education for twenty poor boys from Battersea. By 1750 the school had nearly 90 pupils, and was the only school of significance in Battersea until a school was established there by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in 1799. The two schools were run as one for part of the first half of the 19th century, and separated out again in 1853. In the 1870s an upper school for 250 fee-paying scholars was proposed as an addition to the elementary school. The original twenty free places were to be safeguarded at the latter.
The Upper School, shortly renamed Battersea Grammar School, opened on 12th April 1875 on St John's Hill, Battersea. The second headmaster, William Henry Brindley who originally joined the school as an assistant master, was appointed in 1881, to what was then a school of 48 pupils. In 1936 the school moved to purpose built premises in Abbotswood Road, Streatham. During the Second World War pupils were evacuated first to Worthing then to Hertford. As a result of lack of funds, the school became a controlled school in the late 1940s. It closed in 1977, and staff and pupils were amalgamated with those of the Rosa Bassett Grammar School in the new Furzedown Secondary School. In 1993 the Abbotswood Road site was taken over by Streatham Hill and Clapham High School.
Headmasters of Battersea Grammar School were Rev Edmund A Richardson, 1875-1881, William Bindley, 1881-1918, Henry Ellis, 1918-1945, Walter Langford, 1945-1965, James Cowan, 1965-1972, and John Phillips, 1973-1977.
The Old Grammarians' Association was founded on 16 July 1902, although Old Grammarians had held a variety of recreational and social functions prior to this, and it continued to provide social and recreational activities for old boys of Battersea Grammar School throughout the 20th century. It is still in existence at the time of writing, seee www.oldgrammarians.co.uk (correct at time of writing, January 2011).
The Sir Walter St John's Schools Trust was from 1875-1949 the governing body of both schools. After 1949 it existed largely to handle the funds of the Trust, to nominate a proportion of governors and help the schools by making grants.
Sir Walter St John's School continued in existence until 1986. At the time of writing the site houses the Thomas' Day School.
Streatham College for Girls was originally called Streatham High School when it opened in May 1886. It was opened by a Miss van Dordt and was located in Gleneldon Road, Streatham. In 1889 the school moved to The Shrubbery in Streatham High Road. Miss Amy Lefroy was the school's second headmistress from May 1989 until July 1929. In July 1908 the school changed its name to Streatham College for Girls. The third headmistress was Miss A J Broad. The school was closed in July 1933 when the lease on the house could not be renewed.
Wandsworth School was a boys school that began as an offshoot of Wandsworth Technical Institute. In 1927 the school separated from the Technical Institute and moved to new premises at Sutherland Grove, Southfields. The school later amalgamated with Spencer Park School to become John Archer School. It has now closed.
Spencer Park was a secondary county school for boys which opened in 1957. On opening, the intake was made up of boys from Honeywell secondary school, Wandsworth secondary technical school as well as some students from schools in Lavender Hill and Earlsfield. The school was housed in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common, which had been sold to the London County Council in 1952. The school also occupied a new building erected in 1957 specifically to house the school. The two buildings were divided by a playground. The school moved out of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in September 1976 and into the extended new buildings next door, as the building was falling in to disrepair and was unsafe to house the school. The school closed in 1986 when it was amalgamated with Wandsworth School and renamed John Archer School. The students moved to the premises in Sutherland Grove, Southfields in September 1986.
The Glengyle Preparatory School for Boys was founded in 1907 by Leonard Augustine Chope. It was originally in Cambalt Road before moving to 4, Carlton Drive in 1914. Walter Vivian Wallace was appointed as Assistant School Master in 1938 before purchasing the lease from Mr Chope and becoming the proprietor/headmaster of the school. He purchased the freehold of the property in Carlton Drive in 1960. His wife Winifred taught at the school and took over its running following the death of her husband in 1981. Mrs Wallace retired in 1986 and the school was sold. It is now the Merlin School.
The school was founded in 1850 and closed in 1985. It was on Green Lane, High Street, Battersea.
The school was opened in 1866, and rebuilt in 1908. It was situated on the corner of Este Road and Batten Street, Battersea, and originally known as Christ Church Middle Class Day School for Boys, Girls and Infants.
The school was founded in 1828 on Roehampton Lane. The "bottom" school was built in 1835, and the "upper" school in 1854, originally intended as a separate school for boys.
The Wandsworth District Board of Works was formed in 1855 under the Metropolis Local Government Act. The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the governing administrative body that the individual Districts reported to. The MBW was replaced by the London County Council in 1889. The Wandsworth District Board of Works was replaced in 1900 by the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth. Battersea was included in the Wandsworth District until 1887 when it opted out owing to the rapid increase of its population and was reconstituted as a Metropolitan Vestry. The parishes of Clapham and Streatham were also included in the Wandsworth District. The responsibilities of the Wandsworth District Board of Works were mostly focussed on the maintenance of roadways and public lighting, new buildings, public transport, efficient sewerage, the prevention of contagious diseases and public health.
August Closs was born in Upper Austria in 1898, and received his education in Berlin, Vienna, Graz and University College London (UCL), where he studied under the medievalist and palaeographer Robert Priebsch. Under Priebsch's tuition Closs developed his skills in palaeography and a love of medieval literature. In 1929 Closs became a lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and in 1930 he returned to UCL as a lecturer in the Department of German. In 1932 he was appointed Reader in German at Bristol University as successor to James Boyd. He held the post of Professor and Head of Department until his retirement in 1964.
His particular research interest was in poetry, especially the German love lyrik, where his studies included Gottfried's Tristan and Isolt and the poetry of Goethe and Hölderlin. His first important piece of research was on the theme of Dame World "Weltlohn", published in 1934. Closs played a leading role in the post World War Two twinning of Bristol and Hannover.
In 1931 Closs married Hannah Priebsch, only child of his former mentor, Robert Priebsch, an eminent art critic and successful novelist. Their daughter Elizabeth took a PhD at Berkley, California, in 1964, married an American, Professor Traugott, and is now Professor of Linguistics and English at Stanford University
Closs continued to research and publish right up to his death in 1990. Like his father-in-law he was a great collector. He and Hannah inherited Robert Priebsch's library of rare and first editions, and added to it. Closs also collected manuscripts and autograph letters. The Library is housed at the IGS under the title 'The Priebsch-Closs Collection'.
Robert Priebsch: Born Tannwald, Bohemia, June 1866; educated at the Gymnasium, Prague, the Universities of Leipzig, Prague, Berlin, Strasbourg and Graz; Lecturer in English Language, University College Liverpool, 1896; Professor of German, University College London, 1898; Professor of German Language and Literature, University of London, 1902-1931, Emeritus Professor from 1931; died May 1935
Publications: Diu Vrône Botschaft ze der Christenheit, [Graz: Styria, 1895]; Deutsche handschriften in England , (Erlangen: F. Junge, 1896-1901); Die Heilige Regel für ein vollkommenes Leben: eine Cisterzienserarbeit des XIII. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Weidmann, 1909); The Heliand manuscript : Cotton Caligula A. VII in the British museum, (Oxford: The Clarendon press, 1925); Johan ûz dem virgiere : eine spätmhd. ritterdichtung nach flämischer quelle, nebst dem faksimileabdruck des flämischen volksbuches Joncker Jan wt den vergiere ; herausgegeben und eingeleitet von dr. Robert Priebsch ... mit einer tafel in manuldruck , (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1931); The German language (with W E Collinson), (London: Faber, 1934).
Berthold Auerbach was born into a Jewish family in Thorn in Western Prussia (now Torun in Poland). He attended school there, until his parents moved to Berlin in 1885. He had already begun studying Latin and in the next few years added French and Greek to his curriculum.
In December 1891 he began his working life by going into commercial training with the firm of H. Holde in Berlin. He remained with them until October 1894. Between 1895 and 1897 he trained in business and commerce with Albert Meyer (Speditions-, Commissions- und Bankgeschäft) but was most unhappy, realising that this type of career was not for him.
He joined the Literarische Gesellschaft in Leipzig, which had been founded by Carl Heine, and in March 1898 began work there as actor, Treasurer and Secretary. Out of this society grew Heine's Ibsentheater. The dramatist Frank Wedekind was also a member of the company. The Ibsentheater toured Northern Germany until the end of 1898 when it ceased to exist.
After a brief period as a reporter in Berlin, Auerbach started a career as a theatrical agent. He was to pursue this career for the next thirty-six years and became skilled in matching directors and companies with suitable actors and actresses, not only in Germany, but also in Austria and Switzerland. In this way many famous names in German theatre owed their careers to him through discovery by him and subsequent support and protection for their talent. Amongst these were Adolf Roff, Elsa Wagner, Emil Jannings and Carl Ebert. He was untiring in his travels to review productions and was enthusiastic about contemporary drama. His conduct and industry won him many lasting friendships in the profession: Helene Riechers, Carl Ebert, Elsa Wagner, and the Dumont/Lindemann Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.
In October 1898, Auerbach went to work for the theatre agency E. Drenker & Co. In 1907 he married Anna Pergams who came to Berlin from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad in Russia). In 1915 he was called up for military service and sent to Königsberg for training, where the director of the Stadttheater 'Neues Schauspielhaus' gave him free tickets for all performances. His old firm of Drenker managed to secure his release from the army and he remained with them until 1929, when the firm closed. At this point the State founded an official agency for stage and film, Paritätischer Stellennachweis der Deutschen Bühnen, where the Actors' Union and the Union of Theatre Directors were represented on equal terms. Auerbach remained with them until 1933, when he was dismissed after an SA (Sturmabteilung) raid, albeit with a creditable testimonial. He was called back and re-employed for short periods four times, having become indispensable to the Agency, until Goebbels personally put a stop to this.
Despite numerous letters from the acting profession and others urging his re-employment, Auerbach remained unemployed in Berlin from 1934-1939 when he and his wife, after much heart-searching, decided to leave Germany to join their daughter in England. They were not allowed to bring out their two sons. During the first few years of the Nazi regime, Auerbach was sent free tickets for performances at most of the Berlin theatres, but this largely ceased once Jews were forbidden to enter German theatres, and he could only attend performances in the few special Jewish theatres.
After his arrival in England, Auerbach was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man for a few months. In 1945 he was invited back to Germany to take up his profession again, but he decided it was too late to start afresh. In 1951 he made his first visit to Düsseldorf and Berlin. When he revisited Germany his reception was tumultuous. He wrote an address for Helene Riecher's 85th birthday in 1954, which was read out at her memorial sevice in 1957. She died one month after Auerbach's wife.
In November 1959, Auerbach celebrated his own 85th birthday and received presents and tributes from the entire German theatrical profession, including the Unions. During his exile, he never lost touch with the German theatre scene and derived immense enjoyment not only from the letters he received but from the journals which were sent to him regularly.
Auerbach also wrote poetry, examples of which are scattered through the collection and in relevant literature.
The English Goethe Society was founded on 26 February 1886, one year after the founding of the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar. The idea for such a society was first put forward by the publisher Alfred Trübner Nutt (1856-1910). At an initial meeting convened in a room at the Society of Arts, the new Society was officially constituted. Its aims were '... to promote and extend the study of Goethe's work and thought, and to encourage original research upon all subjects connected with Goethe' (English Goethe Society: First Annual Report presented at a Business Meeting 1 December 1886). It proposed to do this in three ways: (a) through publications - a volume of Transactions each year, at least one translated work, and a Goethe handbook - David Nutt was appointed the Society's official publisher; (b) through meetings and lectures - ordinary meetings were held regularly and papers read before them which were published in the Transactions - the first Ordinary Meeting was held one week after the Inaugural Meeting, on 28 May 1886; (c) through pursuit of Goethe themes in the fine arts - issue of a Goethe portrait, postcards, dramatic productions.
The formal business of the Society was to be carried out by a President (Professor F. Max Müller was the first to be elected), Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Council. A subscription of one guinea per annum was payable, roughly half of which was sent to the Goethe-Gesellschaft in Weimar in return for the privileges of affiliation. However, the Society soon found itself in financial difficulties and changed its rules to create two classes of membership: one paying the full guinea as before and the other paying a half-guinea for membership of the English Goethe Society only.
In its first few years the Society flourished and its membership, which included many distinguished scholars and public figures, rose to about 300. In 1890-1891, however, it went into a steep decline, a significant number of resignations reducing the membership by almost one third. In his autobiography Dr Eugen Oswald, a founder member and Secretary (1891-1912), writes: 'In 1891 weariness had overcome some of its leading members, and the dissolution of the English Goethe Society was formally proposed by some of its officers' (Eugen Oswald: Reminiscences of a Busy Life. London, Alexander Moring, 1911). The weariness was due to the limited scope of the Society's aims. At a special business meeting called for the purpose in 1891, Dr Oswald, backed by Dr Leonard Thorne and Ernest Weiss (later Professor of German at Manchester University), vigorously opposed the dissolution and proposed extending the Society's programme to the fields of German literature, art and science, while still keeping Goethe as the central figure.
This proposal together with the fresh injection of enthusiasm carried the day and a new Council was constituted. Membership rose again and regular meetings once again took place. The presidency passed from Professor Müller to Professor Edward Dowden and thence to a succession of distinguished people including Viscount Haldane of Cloan and Professor Elizabeth Mary Wilkinson. In addition to Ordinary Meetings, soirées were held at which interesting relics and objets d'art were displayed, many lent by Mrs Ludwig (Frieda) Mond, a constant and enthusiastic supporter of the Society. Visits were arranged to Weimar in 1909 and 1910 by Dr Oswald's daughters Lina and Ella, and special celebrations of important anniversaries were organised, e.g. Goethe's centenary and bicentenary (1932 and 1949) and the Society's silver (1911) and golden (1936) jubilees. The Society was represented at several Goethe commemorations in Weimar, Strasbourg and Vienna. The papers read before the meetings of the Society were regularly published in an annual volume, first published in 1886 through to 1912. The activities of the Society were suspended during World War One, 1914-1918. Anti-German feeling ran high for an appreciable time and the Society was not reconstituted until 1923, with the first of a new series of annual volumes appearing in 1924. The aims of the Society spread further to '... the cultivation of relationships with other countries and "world citizenship"' (Leonard Thorne: In Memoriam Dr Eugen Oswald, MA) and in particular to fostering understanding between Anglo-German nations and bringing them into closer union.
Activities were again suspended in 1939 for the duration of World War Two, although the Council continued to meet. This time hostile feeling in the United Kingdom was directed against the Nazi regime and not against Germany as a whole. The then Secretary, Professor Willoughby, was able to reconstitute the Society before hostilities ceased and on 22 February 1945, Dorothy L. Sayers gave a lecture at University College London on 'The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil'.
University College had received a direct hit in 1940 which destroyed all the Society's records, deposited there. What records remained in the personal possession of Ella Oswald, Dr Eugen Oswald's younger daughter, were deposited by her on permanent loan in the Archive of the Institute of Germanic Studies in 1955. By agreement of the Society's Council, the Society's library of some 373 books had been deposited in the library of the Institute on permanent loan three years previously.
In the post-war period the Society continued to flourish. By 1947 its membership had reached 75% of the pre-war numbers and continued to remain steady at 150-200. There was considerable participation in the Goethe bicentenary celebrations in 1949 when Thomas Mann delivered the Society's special lecture before an audience of 700 in the Senate House building of the University of London. The Society also contributed to the planning and execution of activities by the ad hoc British Goethe Festival Society.
A decade later, Schiller was honoured by the Society during a highly successful commemoration week at Bedford College (University of London), organised by Professors Purdie and Willoughby.
Further special activities were organised for the 150th anniversary of Goethe's death in 1982 including a translation competition which attracted 160 entries from all over the world. The Society also participated in a joint conference with the Conference of University Teachers in German at Queen Mary College (University of London). An exhibition was arranged, displayed initially at the Goethe Institute in London, and then shown in cities all over the United Kingdom.
In 1986 the Society celebrated its centenary when at a special dinner and reception Professor Siegbert Prawer gave an address on 'Dichtung und Wahrheit'. The Society is still very active and holds regular meetings at the Institute of Germanic Studies.
Eliza Butler, or Elsie as she was more generally known, was born in Bardsea, Lancashire, into an old Irish family. She learnt German initially from her Norwegian governess and was then sent at the age of 11 to a private school in Hannover. From there at the age of 15 she went on to a college in Paris for British, American and French girls. At 18 she moved on to a reform college in household management in the Harz region of Germany at Reifenstein. At the age of 21 she entered Newnham College, Cambridge.
Having decided to concentrate her studies on German, she travelled to Bonn in 1913 but her adverse impressions and experiences there almost quenched her resolve. During her brief stay she became deeply interested in Hebbel and his works. On the outbreak of war the following year she returned to England. She devoted herself to various tasks including teaching in girls' schools.
Already bilingual in German/English, she began to learn Russian and was put in charge of a party of four nurses bound for the Russian front. Travelling through Norway, Sweden, Finland and Bessarabia she reached Odessa and Reni. She worked in a field hospital which followed the Russian advance until they were a few miles from the Serbian frontline in Macedonia. Her experiences during this time left deep and lasting impressions on her and her attitude to Germany and its people.
She caught malaria and was invalided back to England in 1918. Here she faced a dilemma, to abandon or to continue her German studies in the light of her feelings for Germany. She received sound guidance from Professor J.G. Robertson, who recommended that she study Heine, whose feelings for Germany mirrored her own to a considerable extent. Her nomination for the Newnham College Jubilee Fellowship gave her the opportunity to travel and study without financial worries for the next three years. She returned to Germany to visit Leipzig (1923) and Berlin (1924). Her doctoral thesis on the Saint-Simonians in Germany was published in 1926.
She returned to Germany yet again in 1927 (Berlin) to pursue a deepening interest in Prince Pückler-Muskau. Her studies and findings confirmed one of the abiding themes of her subsequent research - the occult. Her first publication after this visit, The Tempestuous Prince earned her enemies and harsh criticism. This reaction caused her a crisis of confidence in her way forward.
In response she created the 'Sherry Club' which was composed of a handful of kindred spirits. From this stemmed another book, on Sheridan (1931). Again the critics were hostile, and again their reaction caused her to doubt her ability. She escaped to India in the company of a friend and her experiences of Hindu society at this time were as beneficial as they were profound. They culminated eventually in her book on The Tyranny of Greece over Germany (1935), which again provoked an outraged response particularly in Germany where translation was banned.
In spite of all this she was invited to take the Henry Simon Chair of German Language and Literature in the University of Manchester in 1936. By way of some kind of preparation for this she returned to Germany but was utterly appalled by what she saw of the excesses of the National Socialist regime. A few years later she wrote her book on Rilke (1941) with these feelings still running strongly.
In 1945 she became the Schröder Professor of German at Cambridge and the following year gave her inaugural lecture on 'The Direct Method in German Poetry'. Her research was still concerned with magic and the occult, particularly the figure of Faust in folklore and literature. Between 1948 and 1952 she published three volumes on this theme in connection with her studies of Goethe. Her scholarship was impeccable although her stance was against 'received wisdom' and out of kilter yet again with prevailing thought. Her work was not even mentioned at the Goethe celebrations of 1949.
She gave vent to her feelings in an unpublished sketch which has since been lost, 'The Goethe Bicentenary or Chaos is come again'. If her unconventional views made her unpopular with her peers, her students loved and respected her.
She returned to Germany three times after the World War Two, at the instigation of the British Foreign Office, to give a series of lectures. In 1951 she retired but remained research-active until her death. Her last major undertaking was a book on Napoleon and the poets for which she translated many examples of European poetry into English. She was awarded honorary degrees by London and Oxford Universities. Apart from her scholarly works, Elsie Butler wrote several novels and an autobiography, Paper Boats (1959).
The Exile Archive was established at the Institute in the academic year 1996-97. The Institute already holds the papers of several individuals such as Rudolf Majut, Herbert Thoma and Berthold Auerbach, who were exiled from Germany and Austria during the 1930s as a result of persecution under the National Socialist regime. However, since the setting up of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, the Institute has attracted archival donations from several emigrés, and the Collection now has material relating to both individuals and organisations.
Friedrich Gundolf, born Friedrich Leopold Gundelfinger, Darmstadt, 20 July 1880, son of Sigmung Gundelfinger (1846-1910), Professor of Mathematics at the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt; educated at the Ludwig-Georgs Gymnasium, Darmstadt, and studied German literature and history at the Universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin; served in Army Reserve, 1916-1918, and held lectures on Goethe for the 6th Army in France and Belgium; appointed Professor of German Literature at Heidelberg, 1920, a post he held until his death in 1931, he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Gundolf's research output was prolific and wide ranging, his major publications were Shakespeare Und Der Deutsche Geist, (1911), Caesar Geschichte Seines Ruhms, (1924) and biographies of Goethe (1916), Heinrich von Kleist (1922) and Stefan George (1924). On his death he left many unfinished and unpublished manuscripts, of which a few were published posthumously by his widow.
George B Reese was Headmaster of Toroyn School, Merioneth, Wales.
Gilbert Waterhouse: Born Hipperholme, Yorkshire, 15 July 1888, son of Harold Waterhouse of Tarleton, Lancs; Educated at Pendleton Grammar School, Wigan Institute, Pendleton Higher Elementary School and Manchester Grammar School (Foundation Scholar 1900), St John's College Cambridge and the University of Berlin; first recipient of the Tiarks University German Scholarship, Cambridge, 1910; Assistant Lecturer in English, University of Lepzig, 1911-1914; Assistant Master, Manchester Grammar School, 1914-1915; Professor of German, University of Dublin, 1915-1932; Administrator, Government Scheme of Grants to ex-Service Students (Ireland), 1919-1925; Secretary, Royal Commission on the University of Dublin, 1920; Professor of German, Queen's University, Belfast, 1933-1953; Died 25 July 1977. Married 1920, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Wobert Woods, 3 daughters.
Publications: The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Seventeenth Century, 1914; The War and the Study of German: a public lecture delivered in Trinity College, Dublin, on Tuesday, May 29th, 1917 , (1917); ed Franz Grillparzer: Weh' dem der lügt, (1923); The Prince of Peace, (1927); A Short History of German Literature, (1928); (trans) Clara Viebig: The Sleeping Army, (1929); (trans) General von Seeckt Thoughts of a Soldier, (1930); Simon van der Stel's Journal of his Expedition to Namaqualand (1685), (1932, supplement 1953).
Hugo Frederick Garten: born Hugo Friedrich Königsgarten, Brünn, Moravia, Austria, 13 Apr 1904, into a Jewish family. Educated at a Gymnasium in Berlin, and the Universites of Jena (1923), Vienna (1923-1924), Berlin (1924-1926) and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1930; free-lance writer in Berlin, 1928-1933; moved to Vienna, 1933 and London, 1938; teacher at New College School, Oxford, 1940-1945, and member of staff of Die Zeitung, London, 1941-1944; DPhil, Oxford, 1944; taught modern languages at Westminster School, 1946-1965; Lecturer at the Universities of Surrey and London 1965-. He was a member of the International PEN Club, the English Goethe Society and the Gerhart Hauptmann-Gesellschaft.
Married Anne Leonard Smith, 1952, no children.
The Conference of University Teachers of German (CUTG) was founded in 1932, with the aim of of meeting annually 'to discuss matters pertaining to the study of German in all its branches, to promote the study thereof, to encourage research, and generally to foster high standards of competence among university teachers of German'. Membership is open to any person who holds a full-time or part-time teaching or research appointment within the field of or including German Studies at a university in Great Britain or Ireland, or at a college within such a university.
Since 1967 the CUTG has published an annual survey of Research in Germanic Studies. In 1986 the Conference established a fund for Postgraduate Travelling Scholarships; further initiatives in recent years include the CUTG website (1996), the CUTG-sponsored e-mail discussion list german-studies (1998), a series of annual publications of proceedings from the meetings of the Conference, and further funds to support Publication Scholarships and an annual Essay Prize.
Herbert Thoma was born in Munich on 31 March 1899. He was the son of Karl Thoma-Höfele, a painter who was related to the writer Ludwig Thoma. Herbert did his military service in 1917 and then entered Munich University to read German, English, History and Philosophy. In 1920-21 he was assistant to Hermann Paul but was supervised for his doctorate (submitted 1922) by Carl von Kraus, the great German medievalist and philologist. His doctoral thesis on Rittertreue was published in 1923 (see below).
After leaving the University he went to work for the Süddeutsche Monatshefte, which ceased publication in 1936. In 1939 he left Germany for the United Kingdom to join his fiancée Susi Bauer, who had fled from the Nazi persecution of the Jews several years previously. Thoma was able to leave Germany on the pretext of travelling to England to research the early German manuscripts in British libraries as a supplement to the work of Robert Priebsch. To give plausibility to his trip, however, he was obliged to leave behind him all his personal and professional papers. Ironically, these were subsequently destroyed in the Allied bombing of Munich.
Once settled in England, Thoma married Susi Bauer and through the good offices of herself and a group of fellow exiles he was approached by academics, including Professor Frederick Norman of the Department of German at King's College London, and persuaded to become an assistant in this Department in 1947. In 1948 he was appointed Lecturer and in 1950 became a Recognised Teacher in the University of London. In 1959 he was appointed Senior Lecturer. He lectured in medieval German language and literature generally but his special research field was early German glosses, on which he became a leading authority. He retired from King's College in 1967 but remained research-active until his death on 18 September 1975.
The Institute of Germanic Studies was founded in 1950. The Institute is primarily a research institute, serving the needs of postgraduate students and scholars from the United Kingdom and abroad. The Institute has a wide-ranging publishing programme, including monographs, volumes of essays, conference proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies. Its programme of activities comprises lectures by guest speakers, symposia on particular authors and/or topics, readings by visiting writers, reading workshops, and colloquia for postgraduate students. The Institute also hosts the intercollegiate course leading to the MA degree in German of the University of London.
The Institute's Library holds over 87,000 volumes (nearly 500 current periodicals). It is widely recognised as the principal research collection for German in the University of London, and is the largest of its kind not only in the United Kingdom, but indeed anywhere outside the German-speaking countries. The reference collection covers the language and literature of all periods, with outstanding holdings of journals, reference works, and contemporary writing. Its book collection starts with the printed works of the late fifteenth century and comes right up to the present, whilst its extensive manuscript and archive holdings (many of which remain unknown and unpublished) range from the mid-ninth century to contemporary poetry.
The Research Centre for German Exile Studies was established at the IGS in 1995, when the Institute offered a home to this new organisation, which combined the former London Research Group for German Exile Studies and the Research Centre for Germans and Austrians in Great Britain, previously at the University of Aberdeen. The work of the Centre focuses on the history of those German-speaking emigrés who found refuge in Great Britain, on their personal recollections and experiences, their reception in British society, and their enrichment of the life of their new country of residence in such varied spheres as the professions, industry and commerce, literature, art and culture, politics, publishing, the media, and the world of entertainment and leisure.