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Fedor Ganz Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 7238

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains documents, correspondence, unpublished writings, sketches, photos, and various flyers, postcards, posters, and similar printed materials advertising artistic, literary, and political exhibitions, events, and happenings. A substantial amount of family documents are also included; some of these may have been amassed for research into a larger literary work entitled Inventar vor dem Brand which was loosely inspired by the life of his mother, Elsbeth Klemperer. This work was still incomplete at the time of his death, but a large manuscript draft is present in the collection. Similarly, some of the political flyers and postcards, which date to the era of World War I, may have belonged to his parents. The extended family documents also include handbills for operas and theatrical works performed in 1870.

Dates

  • Creation: 1870-1984

Creator

Language of Materials

This collection is in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Access Information

Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.

Use Restrictions

There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:

Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org

Biographical Note

Fedor Ganz was a writer and a painter, born in Hamburg in 1910, raised in Geneva, Switzerland, and educated in France at the Sorbonne. From the 1930s until his death in 1983, Ganz was active both politically and artistically, exhibiting his artwork (mostly paintings) and publishing poetry and political essays in Spanish, French, and German. He lived a relatively itinerant lifestyle, and from his university days onwards traveled extensively between South America, Europe, and North America. At least part of the reason for this extensive travel may be traced to translation work, which he performed for the United Nations and other diplomatic and cultural organizations. His "Ensayo marxista de la historia de Espana" ( Marxist essay on the history of Spain ), first published in 1934, won favorable notices, and Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral wrote the preface to one of his volumes of poetry. He had entered Surrealist and Dadaist literary circles as a young man in Paris, and he exhibited his paintings throughout his life. During the 1960s he reclaimed German citizenship; Fedor Ganz died in Paris in December 1983.

Extent

0.75 Linear Feet

Abstract

The collection contains documents, correspondence, unpublished writings, sketches, photos, and various flyers, postcards, posters, and a substantial amount of family documents.

Other Finding Aid

An inventory is available in folder 1, with an account of Ganz's death and the circumstances of donation.

Separated material

Some photographs have been removed to the Photograph Collection.

Clippings have been removed to the Fedor Ganz Clippings Collection, AR 7238 C.

The following published books were removed to the LBI Library collection on 2010 June 25:

  1. Ensayo marxista de la historia de Espania
  2. Entre ser y no ser
  3. Septieme Demeure y les delices de Capoue
  4. L'Ingenue
Title
Guide to the Fedor Ganz Collection, 1870-1984  AR 7238
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by LBI Staff and Timothy Ryan Mendenhall
Date
© 2009
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Revision Statements

  • November 28, 2011 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States