Salcia Landmann, born Salcia Passweg (; 18 November 1911 – 16 May 2002), was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish writer. She was born in

Zhovkva Zhovkva is a List of cities in Ukraine, city in Lviv Raion, Lviv Oblast (Oblast, region) of western Ukraine. Zhovkva hosts the administration of Zhovkva urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately History A ...

, Galicia, and died in St. Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. She worked on preserving the

Yiddish language Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

, and she wrote the important work ''Der Jüdische Witz'' (''

Jewish Humor The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the compilation of the Torah and the Midrash in the ancient Middle East, but the most famous form of Jewish humor consists of the more recent stream of verbal and frequently anecdotal humor of Ashke ...

''). She was one of the founders of the

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

. She had one son, Valentin Landmann, and was married to philosopher Michael Landmann from 1939.

Life

Landmann was born Salcia Passweg in

, Galicia in 1911. Her parents Israel and Regina Passweg were from well-off Jewish families. She grew up on her grandparents' estate in Zhovkva until she was six, when her parents moved to

St Gallen St. Gallen is a Swiss city and the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 167,000 inhabitants in 2019) and rep ...

, where she attended grammar school. She studied in Berlin, Basel and later in Geneva, Paris and Zurich, earning a Magistra artis and a doctoral degree, with a dissertation on phenomenology and ontology and

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

. Landmann worked on preserving the

, and she wrote the important work ''Der Jüdische Witz'' (''

''). The book contained more than a thousand Jewish jokes, a foreword by Professor Carlo Schmid and an introduction by Landmann. Landmann also wrote about Jewish cookery from Eastern Europe, and worked as a translator on a number of Yiddish works, including stories by Scholem Alejchem. She wrote numerous newspaper articles, and published anthologies of anecdotes, essays and proverbs documenting Jewish culture. She was one of the founders of the

in 1978. She had one son, Valentin Landmann, and was married to philosopher Michael Landmann from 1948. She met her husband in Basel, where the couple became friendly with Jean Amery,

Ernst Bloch Ernst Simon Bloch (; ; July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977; pseudonyms: Karl Jahraus, Jakob Knerz) was a German Marxist philosopher. Bloch was influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as by apocalyptic and religious thinker ...

Max Horkheimer Max Horkheimer ( ; ; 14 February 1895 – 7 July 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist best known for his role in developing critical theory as director of the Institute for Social Research, commonly associated with the Frankfurt Schoo ...

and

Martin Buber Martin Buber (; , ; ; 8 February 1878 – 13 June 1965) was an Austrian-Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I and Thou, I–Thou relationship and the I� ...

. She died in St. Gallen,

in 2002, at the age of 90. After her death her son donated her archives to the Vadiana Cantonal Library in St. Gallen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landmann, Salcia 1911 births 2002 deaths People from Zhovkva Jewish Ukrainian writers Swiss writers Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Polish emigrants to Switzerland Ukrainian women writers Jewish women writers People from St. Gallen (city)