Rose Ausländer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rose Ausländer
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| Born | Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer May 11, 1901 Czernowitz, Duchy of Bukovina, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | January 3, 1988 (aged 86) Düsseldorf, West Germany |
| Occupation | poet, newspaper editor, bank clerk, foreign correspondent |
| Language | German, English, Yiddish, Hebrew |
| Citizenship | German, US |
| Genres | expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit, modern poetry |
| Subjects | nature, homeland, shoah, love and death |
| Years active | 1921–1986 |
| Notable works | Blinder Sommer |
| Spouse | Ignaz Ausländer (October 19, 1923 – 1931) |
| Partner | Helios Hecht (1927–1934) |
Rose Ausländer (born Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer; May 11, 1901 – January 3, 1988) was a Jewish poet. She wrote her poems in both German and English. Rose was born in a city called Czernowitz in a region known as the Bukovina. She lived through many big changes as her home country belonged to different nations over time. These included the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Romania, and later the Soviet Union. Rose Ausländer lived in several countries during her life, including Austria-Hungary, Romania, the United States, and Germany.
Contents
Rose Ausländer's Life Story
Early Years and Education
Rose Ausländer was born in 1901 in Czernowitz, which is now in Ukraine. At that time, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her family spoke German and was Jewish.
Rose started school in Czernowitz in 1907. In 1916, her family had to leave their home and move to Vienna because of the war. They returned to Czernowitz in 1920. By then, the city had become part of the Kingdom of Romania.
In 1919, Rose began studying literature and philosophy at the university in Cernăuți. She became very interested in the ideas of the philosopher Constantin Brunner. After her father passed away in 1920, she left the university.
Life in America: Minneapolis and New York
In 1921, Rose moved to the United States with her university friend, Ignaz Ausländer. He later became her husband. In Minneapolis, she worked as an editor for a German newspaper called Westlicher Herold. She also published her first poems in an anthology there.
In 1922, Rose and Ignaz moved to New York City. They got married on October 19, 1923. Three years later, when she was 25, Rose and Ignaz separated. However, she kept his last name, Ausländer. She became an American citizen in 1926.
Her early poems showed a style called expressionism. Later, her writing became clearer and more direct. She was also interested in the ideas of philosophers like Baruch Spinoza and Plato.
Back and Forth: Cernăuți and New York
In 1926, Rose returned to Cernăuți for two years to care for her sick mother. While there, she met a graphologist named Helios Hecht, who became her partner. In 1928, she went back to New York with Hecht. She continued to publish poems in German newspapers in New York and Cernăuți until 1931.
In 1931, she returned to Cernăuți again to look after her mother. She worked for a newspaper there until 1940. By 1934, she lost her US citizenship because she had not stayed in the US for more than three years. She also separated from Helios Hecht that year.
In early 1939, Rose traveled to Paris and New York, but she returned to Cernăuți once more to care for her sick mother. In 1939, her first book of poems, Der Regenbogen (The Rainbow), was published. A writer named Alfred Margul-Sperber helped her. Critics liked the book, but it was not popular with the public. Most of the printed copies were destroyed when Nazi Germany took over Cernăuți in 1941.
Difficult Times During the War
From October 1941 to 1944, Rose lived in the ghetto of Cernăuți. She was forced to work during this time. She stayed there with her mother and brother for two years. For another year, they had to hide to avoid being sent to Nazi concentration camps.
In 1943, Rose met the poet Paul Celan in the Cernăuți ghetto. He later used an image from one of her 1939 poems in his famous poem Todesfuge. Rose felt honored that a great poet found inspiration in her work. In the spring of 1944, the Bukowina region became part of the Soviet Union. Rose worked in the Cernăuți city library until September 1944.
Return to New York
In October 1944, Rose Ausländer moved back to New York. In 1947, her mother passed away, and Rose became very ill.
From 1948 to 1956, Rose wrote her poems only in English. From 1953 to 1961, she worked as a foreign correspondent for a shipping company in New York. She became a US citizen again in 1948.
Rose met the poet Marianne Moore at a writer's conference in New York. They became friends and wrote many letters to each other. Marianne Moore encouraged Rose to start writing poetry in German again. Rose dedicated several of her English poems to Moore.
In 1957, she met Paul Celan again in Paris. They talked about modern poetry and the shoah (Holocaust). After this meeting, Rose returned to writing in her native language, German. Celan encouraged her to change her poetic style to be clearer and more musical.
In 1963, she spent time in Vienna. There, she published her first book since 1939, called Blinder Sommer (Blind Summer). People loved this book.
Final Years in Düsseldorf
In 1967, Rose moved back to Europe. After trying to live in Vienna, she finally settled in Düsseldorf, Germany. She lived in a guesthouse at first and often read her poems at a local pub.
During this time, she wrote many poems very quickly. After an accident, she moved into the Nelly Sachs Home for the elderly in 1972. From 1978 onwards, she was very sick with arthritis and had to stay in bed. Even then, she continued to write a large part of her work. She dictated her poems to others until 1986 because she could not write by herself. Rose Ausländer passed away in Düsseldorf in 1988.
Rose Ausländer's Works
Rose Ausländer wrote more than 3,000 poems. Her poems often explored themes like "Heimat" (homeland, especially Bukowina), childhood, her relationship with her mother, and her Jewish faith, including the Holocaust and exile. She also wrote about language itself, love, getting older, and death.
Any poem she wrote after 1945 was influenced by her experiences during the Holocaust, even if it didn't directly talk about it. Rose believed that writing was still possible, and it was a big part of who she was. She once asked, "Wer bin ich / wenn ich nicht schreibe?" (Who am I / if not writing?).
Here are some of her well-known works:
- Der Regenbogen (The Rainbow), 1939.
- Blinder Sommer (Blind Summer), 1965.
- Brief aus Rosen (Letter from Rosa/Letter from Roses)
- Das Schönste (The most beautiful)
- Denn wo ist Heimat? (Then Where is the Homeland)
- Die Musik ist zerbrochen (The Music is Broken)
- Die Nacht hat zahllose Augen (The Night Has Countless Eyes)
- Die Sonne fällt (The Sun Fails)
- Gelassen atmet der Tag (The Day Breathes Calmly)
- Hinter allen Worten (Behind All Words)
- Sanduhrschritt (Hourglass Pace)
- Schattenwald (Shadow Forest)
- Schweigen auf deine Lippen (Silence on Your Lips)
- The Forbidden Tree
- Treffpunkt der Winde (Meetingplace of the Wind)
- Und nenne dich Glück (And Call You Luck)
- Wir pflanzen Zedern (We Plant Cedars)
- Wir wohnen in Babylon (We Live in Babylon)
- Wir ziehen mit den dunklen Flüssen (We Row the Dark Rivers)
- Herbst in New York (Autumn in New York)
- An ein Blatt (To a Leaf)
- Anders II
Works Published After Her Death
- Poems of Rose Auslander. An Ark of Stars (Translated by Ingeborg Wald, Drawings by Ed Colker, Haybarn Press 1989)
- Rose Auslander: Twelve Poems, Twelve Paintings (Translated by Ingeborg Wald, Paintings Adrienne Yarme, Ithaca, NY 1991)
- Dánta le Rose Ausländer (Translated into Irish by Isobel Ní Riain, Coiscéim, Dublin, 2023)
