Elpis Melena

, Nee Marie Espérance by Schwartz Brandt ( born November 8, 1818 in Southgate, Hertfordshire, England; † April 20, 1899 in Ermatingen, Switzerland ), also Marie Esperance de Kalm Schwartz, Marie Speranza by Schwartz, known by her Graecized name Elpis Melena (Greek Ελπίς Μέλαινα ), was a writer of German origin and English nationality. She was a friend of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Franz Liszt and was known mainly in the field of travel and memoir literature.

Life

Early years

Born the daughter of a Hamburg banker in England, she was educated mainly in Geneva. After a brief early marriage to a cousin widowed, she settled in Rome. With her ​​second husband, the Hamburg banker Ferdinand von Schwartz, whom she had met in Italy, they undertook adventurous travels through Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt and North Africa, but this marriage ended in divorce. In Rome, led the wealthy and educated, especially linguistically talented ( they should have mastered eight languages ​​) woman a literary salon, where numerous artists and aristocrats wrong. She was friends with Franz Liszt and nursed him for many years a lively correspondence.

In addition, they continue indulged their wanderlust.

Garibaldi

Since 1849, interest in Marie Esperance by Schwartz for the freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi. In the autumn of 1857, she joined Garibaldi on the island of Caprera in personal relationships; she lived with him, took care of his children, supported his cause financially and through their writings and nursed him during his captivity and after his injury. It was generally regarded as his mistress; Garibaldi is said to have stopped several times for her hand. Garibaldi gave her out of gratitude for their selfless friendship the manuscript of his memoirs, which she translated into German quickly and in 1861 even before their competitors Alexandre Dumas the Elder. could get out.

Crete

The end of 1865 moved from Esperance Marie Schwartz resident to Crete, where they are undeterred built a charming villa in the vineyards by the raging on the island during the Cretan insurrection fights, in Chalepa in Chania. Your sympathy belonged to the insurgents. At her request, Garibaldi sent in support of the uprising a contingent of 500 men to Crete. She devoted much time and money charitable institutions, founded hospitals, asylums, schools, translated German textbooks into modern Greek and Cretan folk songs, legends and folklore into German. Both the Christian and the Muslim Cretans she earned a lot of respect.

She unfolded in the field of animal welfare, an active commitment that extended over all of Europe. In Chania, she founded a veterinary hospital for horses and donkeys, the countless street dogs were fed daily. In numerous brochures in many languages ​​they wooed promoters of animal welfare and sat down together with Ernst and Ernst von Weber Grysanowski against animal testing.

After 20 years on Crete, they settled in Switzerland, where she eventually died at the age of 80 years.

Swell

  • Franz Brümmer: Schwartz, Marie Esperance from. In: General German Biography (ADB ). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, pp. 277 f
  • Peter E. Stoetzer ( great-great grandson of Elpis Melena ), Prologue to " Elpis Melena, experiences and observations of a more than 20-year stay in Crete ", edition 2008 ( online at Google Book Search )

Works (selection)

  • Leaves from the African africa travel diary of a lady, Braunschweig (published anonymously) 1849
  • Memoirs of a Spanish piaster ( 1857)
  • One hundred and one day on my horse (1860 )
  • Garibaldi's Memoirs ( 2 vols, 1861); Online in the Google Book Search
  • Recollections of General Garibaldi, or, Travels from Rome to Lucerne London 1861 ( online at Google Book Search )
  • View of Calabria and the Aeolian Islands in 1860, Hamburg 1861 ( online at Google Book Search )
  • Garibaldi Varignano 1862 on Caprera 1863 ( Leipzig, 1864); Online in the Google Book Search
  • The young stilt dancers, episode during a trip through the western Pyrenees, Jena 1865 ( online at Google Book Search )
  • The island of Crete under Ottoman administration (Vienna 1867); Online in the Google Book Search
  • From Rome to Crete. Travel sketch ( 1870)
  • Crete - bee or Cretan folk songs, legends, love, thought and moral maxims (1874 )
  • Gemma, or virtue and vice. Amendment (1877 )
  • Garibaldi. Messages from his life " ( 2 vols, 1884)
  • Experiences and observations of a more than 20-year stay in Crete, 1892, Revised edition: ISBN 978-3-938878-02-6
Italian Greyhound Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Piastre WorldCat Integrated Authority File
305104
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