Christa Winsloe
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Christa Winsloe (23 December 1888 – 10 June 1944), formerly Baroness Christa von Hatvany-Deutsch, was a German-Hungarian
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
,
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...
and sculptor, best known for her play '' Gestern und heute'' (known under several titles, see below), filmed in 1931 as ''
Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...
'' and the 1958 remake. Winsloe was the first to write a play on female homosexuality in the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
, yet without a "radical critique of the social discrimination of lesbian women."


Early life

Christa Kate Winsloe was born in
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...
to the military officer Arthur Winsloe and his wife Katharina Elisabeth Scherz. Her mother died unexpectedly in 1900. Upon her death, Christa was sent to the Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift, a very strict boarding school in
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
. In this institution, the girls of the aristocracy were drilled to learn discipline and submission. The experience would inspire Winsloe's later body of work: "as an adult Winsloe had to write down this nightmare to get it off her chest." In 1909, she studied sculpture in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
(specifically, her interest was sculpting animals), against her family's consent. Sculpture-making was considered an "unfeminine" profession at the time. In 1913, she married Baron (1880–1961), a rich Hungarian writer and landowner. Thus, she became known as Baroness Christa von Hatvany-Deutsch. While married to Hatvany, Winsloe began to write ''Das Mädchen Manuela'' ("The Child Manuela"), a short novel based on her experiences at Kaiserin-Augusta but held off on publishing. Soon after, her marriage failed, but Hatvany made Winsloe a generous allowance after the divorce. Winsloe was involved in a relationship with newspaper reporter
Dorothy Thompson Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...
, probably before World War II when Thompson was reporting from Berlin.


Career

In 1930, Winsloe wrote the play ‘Knight Nerestan’ which was produced in
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
and then
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
under the title ''Gestern und heute'' (‘Yesterday and Today'). The play's success led to a 1931 film version called ''
Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...
'' (Girls in Uniform) with Winsloe as one of the screenwriters. The play ends differently from the film. In the play, the young student, Manuela, is destroyed because of rejection by her teacher, Fräulein Elizabeth von Bernburg, who did not dare to side with Manuela against the headmistress or oppose the brutal educational methods. Manuela commits suicide. The film is more ambiguous, with von Bernburg attempting to defend the student and herself. The film version was also a considerable success, both financially and critically. This was due to its ambitiously aesthetic form and the fact that only women performed in it. The lesbian aspect of the story was downplayed and depicted as an adolescent crush, even though Winsloe co-authored the script, and
Leontine Sagan Leontine Sagan (born Leontine Schlesinger; 13 February 1889 – 20 May 1974) was a theatre director and actress of Jewish descent, whose life and career took her from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to South Africa, Britain and the United States. ...
, who in the play had stressed the lesbian aspect, acted as director. In response to the play and film's downplaying of the lesbian themes, Winsloe completed and published her novel ''Das Mädchen Manuela'' (The Child Manuela) in 1933. It was a bolder novelized version of the screenplay that emphasized the lesbian storyline. Winsloe did not publish anymore after ''Das Mädchen Manuela'' because she did not want to write under the rules and conditions of the German Literature Department. Soon enough, all of Winsloe's books and articles were on the Nazi index of "undesired literature". The author was considered as "politically unreliable". During World War II, however, she wrote scripts for G.W. Pabst.


Personal life and death

On the strength of ''
Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...
'''s acclaim, Winsloe moved to
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, where at the time there was a lesbian sub-culture. She had plenty of money (from her ex-husband's allowance), worked as an animal sculptor, and had a wide circle of friends. She was a member of the
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...
(the German Social Democrats, then largely reform Marxist in orientation), and was open about her sexuality. Early in
Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
, Winsloe fled the Nazis with her partner,
Dorothy Thompson Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...
(Thompson had warned against Hitler early on, and was one of the first women who interviewed Hitler). They spent time in Italy and then Winsloe followed Thompson to the
U.S The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
., but Winsloe did not like it there. Her scripts were rejected from Hollywood producers and she did not want to write in English, so she left Thompson and returned to Europe in 1935. She spent the next years travelling between
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. In October 1939, Winsloe moved south and settled in
Cagnes Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; ) is a French Riviera town near Nice that is in the Alpes-Maritimes department, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeastern France. Geography Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in southeaste ...
, where she met the Swiss author Simone Gentet. They stayed together during the following years and Gentet translated some of Winsloe's works into French. The two women also offered temporary support and refuge for people fleeing the Nazis. Following an immediate evacuation order on 10 June 1944, Winsloe and Gentet were falsely accused of being Nazi spies by four Frenchmen. They shot and killed the two women in a forest near the country town of
Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...
.


Works


Plays

* '' Gestern und heute'' (1930) ** Published in English as ''Children in Uniform'' (1932)


Films

* ''
Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...
'' (1931)


Novels

* ''Das Mädchen Manuela'' (1933) ** Published in English as ''The Child Manuela'' (1934, translated by Agnes Neill Scott) * ''Life Begins'' (1935) ** Also published in the U.S. as ''Girl Alone'' (1936)


Unpublished works

* ''Sylvia and Sybille'' (play, 1931) * ''Die halbe Geige'' (novel, 1935, 'Half the Violin')


References


External links


Lespress: Christa Winsloe und die Mädchen in Uniform


* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winsloe, Christa 1888 births 1944 deaths Austrian baronesses Bisexual artists German bisexual women Bisexual screenwriters Bisexual dramatists and playwrights Bisexual sculptors Female resistance members of World War II French Resistance members German socialists German LGBTQ screenwriters German LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights German LGBTQ sculptors 20th-century German LGBTQ people Writers from Darmstadt 20th-century German artists 20th-century German sculptors German women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights German women screenwriters 20th-century German women writers Hatvany family 20th-century German screenwriters Mass media people from Darmstadt German civilians killed in World War II