Janstein , Elizabeth , von , 1893-1944 , historian

Elizabeth von Janstein, author, poet and journalist, born in the Austrian town of Iglau in 1893; worked as a receptionist in Vienna, where, after 1918, she became involved with the reform groupings around Eugenie Schwarzwald. Within this grouping she first began to write, supported by such names as Emil Lucka, Felix Braun and Emil Alphons Rheinhardt. Between 1918 and 1921, she published poetry in expressionist journals Die Aktion and Der Friede. In the 1920s, Janstein worked as a court reporter for the Abend and shortly afterwards became correspondent for the Neue Freie Press in Paris and Brussels from where she contributed articles on politics, culture and society until 1939. She was also Vice-President of the Federation Internationale des Journalistes between 1935 and 1936. At the outbreak of World War II, Janstein fled to England and was interned by the British government, falling ill shortly after her release and dying in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire in December 1944.