Elsa Brändström
Encyclopedia
Life
Elsa Brändström was born in 1888 in St. Petersburg, the daughter of the Military Attache at the Swedish Embassy, Edvard Brändström, and his wife Anna Eschelsson. In 1891, when Elsa was three years old, Edvard Brändström and his family returned to SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. In 1906, Brändström, now a General, became the Swedish Ambassador at the court of Tsar Nicholas II and returned to St Petersburg.
Elsa spent her childhood in Linköping
Linköping
Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...
in Sweden. From 1906 to 1908, she studied at the Anna Sandström Teachers Training College in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
but returned to St. Petersburg in 1908. Her mother died in 1913. Elsa was in St. Petersburg at the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and volunteered for a position as a nurse in the Russian army.
In 1915, she went to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
for the Swedish Red Cross, to introduce basic medical treatment for the German POWs. Back in St. Petersburg, she began the establishment of a Swedish Aid organization. Her work was severely hindered by the outburst of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in the year 1917.
In 1918, the Russian authorities withdrew her work permit but, nevertheless, she did not give up. Between 1919 and 1920, she made several trips to Siberia until she was arrested in Omsk
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
in 1920.
After her release, she moved back to Sweden and organized fund-raising for POWs.
In 1922 her book, Among POWs in Russia and Siberia 1914-1920 was published. From then onwards she looked after former POWs in a rehabilitation sanatorium for home coming German soldiers in Marienborn-Schmeckwitz. She bought a mill named “Schreibermühle“ close to Lychen
Lychen
Lychen is a town in the Uckermark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 24 km southeast of Neustrelitz, and 12 km east of Fürstenberg/Havel. This is the town where the thumbtack was created....
(Uckermark
Uckermark
Uckermark is a Kreis in the northeastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Barnim and Oberhavel, the districts Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and to the east Poland . It is the largest district of Germany areawise...
) and used it as resocialization centre for former POWs. Schreibermühle had extensive lands including fields, forest and meadows on which potatoes and other crops could be grown. This was most useful at that time because the German Mark was an unstable currency and lost value from day to day. In 1923, she undertook a six month tour in the USA, giving lectures to raise money for a new home for children deceased and traumatized POW’s. On her trip she raised US$100,00 and travelled to 65 towns. This amount was unexpectedly high, since the American citizens by that time were not very friendly towards Germans. In January 1924, she founded a children's home “Neusorge” (Mittweida
Mittweida
Mittweida is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, in the Mittelsachsen district. It is situated on the Zschopau River, 18 km north of Chemnitz, and 54 km west of Dresden....
) which had room for more than 200 orphans and children in need.
In 1925, a fund raising trip to Sweden followed.
In 1929, she travelled to Russia again and in the same year she married Robert Ulich, a Professor of Pedagogy. Afterwards, she moved together with him to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
In 1931, she sold the “Schreibermühle“ and donated her other home, Neusorge, to the Welfare Centre in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
.
She founded the “Elsa-Brändström-Foundation-for Women” (the foundation awarded scholarships to children from Neusorge).
On 3 January 1932, her daughter Brita was born in Dresden.
In 1933, Robert Ulich accepted a lectureship at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and in consequence the family moved to the USA. Here Elsa gave aid to newly arrived German and Austrian refugees.
In 1939, she opened the “Window-Shop”, a restaurant which gave work opportunities for refugees in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After World War II ended, she started to raise funds for children in need in Germany, and as a result, the organizations CARE International (Cooperative for American Relief in Europe) and CRALOG
CRALOG
The Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to Operate in Germany was a non governmental organization created in 1946 by the American Council of Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service and included 11 major relief agencies such as the International Red Cross.Food relief shipments to Germany had been...
(Council of Relief Agencies Licensed for Operation in Germany) were established.
She undertook a final lecture tour in Europe on behalf of the “Save the Children Fund”. She could not undertake her last planned journey to Germany because of illness. She died in 1948 of bone cancer.
Because of her commitment to POWs, she became famous as a “patron saint” for soldiers.
In Germany, many streets, schools and institutions are named after her.
Work
- 1921 Bland Krigsfångar i Ryssland och Sibirien 1914-1920 (Among POWs in Russia and Siberia)
- World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
- Initiator of aid institutions CARE International und CRALOGCRALOGThe Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to Operate in Germany was a non governmental organization created in 1946 by the American Council of Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service and included 11 major relief agencies such as the International Red Cross.Food relief shipments to Germany had been...
Literature
- C.Mabel Richmers: Among prisoners of war in Russia and Siberia 1926, Mutchinson and Co. Ltd.
- Magdalena Padberg: Das Leben der Elsa Brändström. Ein Hilfswerk in drei Erdteilen. Herder. Freiburg, 1989. ISBN 3451086417.
- Gerhard Zimmermann: Liebe hat Augen, Hände und Füße. ISBN 3761550170
- Dietmar Kruczek: Eine Frau zwischen den Fronten. Das Leben der Elsa Brändström. Aussaat. 2000. ISBN 3761551584.
- Heinz Vonhoff: Elsa Brändström. Ein Leben für Gefangene, Verfolgte und Hilflose. Claudius. München, 1982. ISBN 3583310039.
- Norgard Kohlhagen: Elsa Brändström. Die Frau, die man Engel nannte. Eine Biographie. 1992. ISBN 3791819836.
External links
- http://www.zeit.de/1948/11/elsa-brandstroem-zum-gedenken - Nachruf in Die ZeitDie ZeitDie Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, 11/1948 - Wonderful tribute to Elsa Brandström by Protestant theologian Paul Tillich The tribute appears in Chapter 3, "The Power of Love," of Paul Tillich's book "The New Being." Professor Tillich was a chaplain in the German army during WWI. "The New Being" was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1955.