Abstract
Edited by Dr Peter Barton in collaboration with Dr August Obermayer. Transcription of the German manuscript and translation into English with extensive annotations. Dunedin 2020.
The following text is a transcription and annotated German-English translation of the first of three journals of letters held in the Hocken Collections (Dunedin, New Zealand) as part of the Kennedy Family: Bielschowsky Papers (MS1493). The letters were written by Marianne Bielschowsky née Angermann (1904 – 1977), a German biochemist resident in Dunedin from 1948 until her death. They were addressed to Marianne’s parents in Germany and record her experiences following her move to Spain in December 1935; the period covered by the letters is 22nd December 1935 - 14th July 1936. The letters are not originals but copies. Two quite different hands can be distinguished (letters from 22nd Dec. 1935 until 22nd March 1936 written by hand 1, letters 25th March 1936 until 14th July 1936 written by hand 2). The first copyist is almost certainly Marianne’s mother, Clara Clementine Charlotte Angermann née Beutler (1881 – 1958), while the second is probably her father, Konrad Theodor Konstantin Angermann (1874 – 1946).
With the consent of the Hocken Library the editors have decided to present the manuscript in two parts: as a transcription and annotated translation. We felt the transcription using a standardised Latin alphabet to be necessary because the text was written in the old German script (deutsche Schrift or Kurrentschrift) which fewer and fewer native speakers of German are now able to decipher. 1 The translation, of course, opens up the text to anyone unable to read German. Detailed annotations and an introduction have been added to provide background on Marianne Angermann and some historical context to the events she describes. By and large, the English translation has retained the original informal punctuation of the letters as well as the relaxed diction one would expect in personal correspondence.