Aenne Goldschmidt ( Michel; 8 November 1920 – 24 January 2020) was a Swiss expressionist dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. She was the first dance artist to receive the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic.

Biography

Aenne Michel was born on 8 November 1920 in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland. She trained at Emmy Sauerbeck's dance school in Bern and worked as a freelance dance artist. In the 1930s and 1940s she was active in

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

circles, even after the Communist Party was banned by the Swiss government. In 1944 she and her husband, musicologist

Harry Goldschmidt Harry Goldschmidt (17 June 1910 in Basel – 19 November 1986) was a Swiss musicologist. Life 1910–1949: Basel, Weimar Republic, France, West Africa, Switzerland Goldschmidt was born in Basel on 17 June 1910, the second child of Siegfried ...

, were among the founding members of the

Swiss Party of Labour The Swiss Party of Labour (; ; ; ) is a communist party in Switzerland. History The party was founded in 1944 by the illegal Communist Party of Switzerland. On 21 May, the constituent conference of the Basel Federation of the party was held. ...

. Due to their communist views they left Switzerland and moved to

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in 1949. Later that year she choreographed a piece for the

World Festival of Youth and Students The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947. History The festival has been held occasionally since 1947, mainl ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. In 1952 she was awarded the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic for her work at the 1951 World Festival in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, becoming the first dancer to receive the national award from the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

government. From 1951 to 1959 Goldschmidt served as director of the East German State Folk Art Ensemble's dance company. Between 1967 and 1970 she published a three volume manual of German

folk dance A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, Ritual, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances ...

. In 1994, after the fall of the Communist government in East Germany and the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

, Goldschmidt and her husband returned to Switzerland and settled in

Riehen Riehen (Swiss German: ''Rieche'') is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland. Together with the city of Basel and Bettingen, Riehen is one of three municipalities in the canton. Riehen hosts the Fondation Beyeler (a private ...

. She died in January 2020 at the age of 99.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldschmidt, Aenne 1920 births 2020 deaths People from Bern Expressionist dancers Swiss choreographers Swiss female dancers Swiss communists Swiss women choreographers 20th-century dancers Swiss emigrants to Germany