Ida Hoff (8 January 1880 - 5 August 1952) was a pioneering medical doctor in

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 ...

. As a woman in a man's world she achieved a number of "firsts". She was the first woman to be employed as a school doctor 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 ...

. She was a feminist activist, although it was as much her lifestyle choices as her conscious activism that are remembered. In a traditionalist city in the conservative heart of

, Ida Hoff was one of

's first regular female motorists.

Life

Family provenance and early years

Adelaide "Ida" Hoff was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Her father, Siegfried Hoff (ca.1845-1896), had been born into a prosperous German Jewish family, and had emigrated to the

United States 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 ...

, taking US citizenship. According to one source, Siegfried Hoff was regarded by family members as the "black sheep" of the family. At some stage he had trained as a dentist. However, he had left the United States and, from the perspective of his respectable brother Leopold who lived near Hamburg and ran the family manufacturing business, Siegfried had "disappeared" into czarist Russia where he supported himself as a businessman. The family business had been established by Ida's grandfather, Johann Hoff, and involved manufacturing a

Malt Extract Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as " malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar ...

health tonic which sold well in the German speaking world. It also sold well in Russia, where "Hoff's Elixir" even got a mention in the 1880 novel ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' ( rus, Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy, ˈbratʲjə kərɐˈmazəvɨ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly ...

'' by

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

(1821–1881). As a child Ida Hoff grew up in circumstances of some material comfort, possibly reflecting her father's success as a health tonic salesman. Anna Naschatir (1861–1901) was the "impoverished cousin" of Siegfried Hoff's landlord. She had been born in

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

which today is in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

but at that time would have been regarded as a prosperous city to the south of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in the western part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Anna was at least sixteen years younger than Siegfried. It is not clear whether they married out of love or from dynastic calculations. The marriage ceremony, conducted towards the end of 1878 in

, was a lavish affair. The couple's only child, Adelaide "Ida" Hoff, was born a little over a year later. However, the marriage was a joyless one. Anna and Siegfried separated in the mid 1880s, although they were formally divorced only in 1890. It was possibly a reflection of the stigma surrounding divorce that later Ida would explain that she had grown up in a one-parent family in the context of her father's early death, which was not completely untrue. (Her father died in 1896.) Despite being a one parent family, it appears that the divorce settlement left Anna and her daughter well provided for financially.

Escape to Switzerland

Before Ida reached school age, in 1886 Anna, still not quite 25, moved with her daughter to

. Hundreds of other young Russian women were making the same journey at this time, especially those from an intellectual milieu or with a record of political awareness. The czarist regime in Russia was becoming increasingly despotic and paranoid, persecuting opponents where it identified them, placing Jews under pressure and blocking the way to higher education for women. Many of the young women fleeing Russia settled in the

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

districts

Fluntern Fluntern is a quarter in the district 7 in Zürich, Switzerland. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 7,325 distributed on an area of 2.84 km2. Notable fe ...

and Hottingen, on the city's eastern side. Anna Hoff was one of these, although unlike most of them she had very little interest in politics or in fermenting revolution in Russia: the focus of her life was more on her own personal development and on looking after her little daughter. The woman running the guest house in which they lived described her – with evident approval – as an educated, quiet and reliable person (''" inegebildete, stille und solide Person"''). Despite the landlady's evaluation, Anna's school education had been relatively basic, and not sufficient as a basis for enrolling as a university student. She was able to listen to lectures as an "Auskultantin". She attended philosophy lectures given by Ludwig Stein. Anna was determined that her daughter's path to serious study should not be blocked in the way hers had been.

Citizenship for Anna: Bereavement and Education for Ida

During the final days of 1892 Anna Hoff and her daughter moved to

. It is not clear whether the move from

had anything to do with Ludwig Stein's move to the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

which took place at about the same time. Stein, like the Hoffs, was of Jewish provenance and he was also, according to at least one source, a dazzling figure. He lived in high bourgeois style in a city villa where guests were always welcome. He was supportive of his friends, but in academic circles he was controversial, and in 1909 he would be forced to give up his teaching chair at the university, after which he moved to Berlin. While Ida was growing up, her mother was a frequent visitor to Stein's Bern villa. In 1896/97, when Anna applied for Swiss citizenship for a second time, Stein went out of his way to champion her application. On the occasion of her first application, in 1893, the city authorities had accepted that she was not involved in politics, but had nevertheless determined that having lived in Switzerland for six years was insufficient to justify citizenship. It was not till 1897, after news came through that her ex-husband had died the previous year, that the authorities gave Anna Hoff the green light for naturalisation. For reasons that remain unclear it was now Anna who did not pursue the matter, however. Anna Hoff was by now increasingly affected by chronic

kidney disease Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is an Inflammation, inflammatory kidney disease and has several types according to the location of the inflammation. Infla ...

. In 1901 she visited

Küssnacht Küssnacht am Rigi (official name since 2004: Küssnacht) is a village and a district and a municipality in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The municipality consists of the three villages Küssnacht, Immensee, and Merlischachen, the hamlet ...

in search of a cure. It was here, in October 1901, that Anna Hoff died, aged around 40 in the guest house "Villa Clara" where she was staying. Ida was greatly affected by her mother's death, and it is clear that the mother:daughter bond between them had been exceptionally close. Landlocked

was unusual in western Europe with regard to the vanishingly low levels of naturally occurring

iodine Iodine is a chemical element; it has symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists at standard conditions as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

in the national diet, a

deficiency A deficiency is generally a lack of something. It may also refer to: *A deficient number, in mathematics, a number ''n'' for which ''σ''(''n'') < 2''n'' * adding iodine to salt sold in the shops. Later, in a medical dissertation, Ida Hoff addressed issues involved in kidney disease in a piece of work entitled "On the question of salt retention in

" (''"Über die Frage der Kochsalzretention bei Nephritis ..''). As a school student Ida Hoff was already actively concerned with women's rights. Activism was not the only thing that marked her out from fellow students. She attended a Gymnasium (school with an academic focus) in Bern. It had only been in 1894 that public secondary schools in

had started to accept female students. By the time she passed her Matura (school final exams) in 1899 Ida Hoff was one of just two girls in her class at the Bern Literary Gymnasium (''"Berner Literatur-Gymnasium'"''). The other one, Clara Winnicki (after 1925 Clara Herbrand), also achieved subsequent feminist notability as the first qualified female

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

in Switzerland with her own business.

Student years and activism

Hoff enrolled as a medical student at the

in 1899. She would flourish at university where, again, she was something of a pioneer. There were indeed plenty of Russian female students studying at western universities. That reflected the all-male nature of universities in Russia. But most of the Russians stayed Russian, spending their spare time with fellow Russians. Ida Hoff was evidently keen from the outset to become assimilated in Swiss society. In order to avoid becoming isolated, she was one of a group of Bern students who founded the "Bern Female Students' Association" (''"Berner Studentinnenverein"''). The female students conducted themselves with some confidence, participating as a group in the opening ceremony in 1903 of a new college building in the city's Grosse Schanze quarter which they made memorable by turning up carrying the slogan "Equal rights - Equal obligations" (''"gleiche Rechte – gleiche Pflichten"''). Subsequently, they defended themselves against sexist attacks. Within the group Hoff found like minded contemporaries several of whom became firm lifelong friends. One of these was the international peace activist and (later) professor of biochemistry,

Gertrud Woker Gertrud Johanna Woker (16 December 1878 – 13 September 1968) was a Swiss suffragette, biochemist and toxicologist, and peace activist. She wrote for over twenty years itemizing the dangers of chemical substances on the human body. She campaign ...

(1878 - 1968). Another was the mathematician Annie Reineck (later Annie Leuch-Reineck) 1880 - 1978) who became the longstanding president of the Swiss league for Women's Voting Rights. The chronicler of the Swiss feminist movement, Agnes Vogel (later Agnes Debrit-Vogel 1892 - 1974), also earned her activist spurs as a member of the "Bern Female Students' Association". For Ida Hoff's future life and professional career, more important, probably, than any of these was Frida Kaiser (later Frida Imboden-Kaiser 1877 - 1962), a forceful contemporary who later became a

pediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...

at St. Gallen and a successful campaigner against needlessly high levels of

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...

. The two of them first met at the "Aebischlössli" student hostel. Kaiser helped Hoff find a job as an assistant at the medical Uni-Clinic with the leading intermist,

Hermann Sahli Hermann Sahli (May 23, 1856 – April 28, 1933) was a Swiss internist who was a native of Bern. In 1878 he earned his doctorate from the University of Bern, and subsequently became an assistant to Ludwig Lichtheim (1845–1915) in Bern. Afterwa ...

. It was also Kaiser who found Hoff a lawyer who advised and backed her in a renewed - and this time successful - application for Swiss citizenship. The small but determined group of female students used to meet together each Saturday at the homely "Daheim Women's Restaurant" in Bern's Zeughausgasse (literally: "Armoury Alley") to analyse and bemoan examples of anti-feminism. They also organised lectures, readings and stage events. Hoff herself was never short of imaginative ideas, and helped with production of their association news-sheet. The "Bern Female Students' Association" became a crucible for the Women's Voting Rights movement. To Hoff it never made sense that women in Switzerland should be able to participate in the workplace, the professions, society and family life, but not in politics. She also recognised that her own education was a privilege, and one that she owed to the women's movement, and this provided an impetus behind several years of intense participation in the executive committee of the "Bern Women's Voting Rights Association" (''"Frauenstimmrechtsverein Bern"''). But she also campaigned on other social and political issues. She called for the introduction of universal old age and disability insurance (which was finally introduced following a referendum in 1947) and involved herself in the 1933 "Women and Democracy" movement which campaigned for the preservation of democracy in the face of the rising tide of right wing populism which was a feature of the times.

Junior doctor: Senior doctor

Ida Hoff passed her national qualifying exams in Summer 1905 and arranged to move 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 ...

in order to obtain experience as a medical assistant at the Moabit Hospital there. It was also in Berlin, at the Women's Clinic of the Charité teaching hospital, that she worked on her dissertation "Beitrag zur Histologie der Schwangerschaft im rudimentären Nebenhorn", a gynaecological study on an aspect of pregnancy: this earned her a doctorate from

in 1906. Her doctorate was supervised by the pathologist

Theodor Langhans Theodor Langhans (28 September 1839 – 22 October 1915) was a German pathologist who was a native of Usingen, Duchy of Nassau. He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, and at the University of Göttingen under Friedrich Gustav Jako ...

. Following her return to Bern, even her friends found it sensational that Hoff, as a woman, was able to win the confidence of the great

internist Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of th ...

, who in 1911 appointed her his senior assistant and then as a senior doctor. As matters turned out, her career with the Uni-Clinic was a brief one. Her appointment at the Sahli's medical Uni-Clinic nevertheless represented a double breakthrough. She was both female and Jewish. Hoff did not engage in Jewish religious practices, but she made no attempt to hide her Jewish provenance and stood out uncompromisingly in opposition to any antisemitic manifestations that she encountered.

Self employed medical practitioner

In April 1911 the cantonal authorities granted her a license to open her own medical surgery. Soon after this she left her employment and her "service apartment" at the medical Uni-Clinic and moved into her own premises in the Marktgasse (''"Market Street"'') where she opened a medical practice for

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

. A year later she moved to larger premises in the Amthausgasse (literally:Office-building Street). Both were centrally located in the heart of the old city. Hoff moved into self employment with some misgivings. At that time, in the whole of Bern, there were just four female doctors working in general practice, compared to 128 male colleagues. Her doubts proved unfounded, however, and she very quickly found she had plenty of patients. She inspired confidence with her sound, always up to date medical knowledge, a strong sense of responsibility, a certain imperturbable calmness of approach and a powerful determination to do good. Her diagnoses were almost always correct; and she communicated them with honesty, clarity, and appropriate sensitivity. In September 1913 she was able to present herself as

's first female in the directors office of the city's principal secondary school for girls. The occasion was given added piquancy by the fact that it was in this same school director's office that, as a child she had been reprimanded twenty years earlier on account of her "excessively high spirited conduct". Once regular medical checkups had been established as a feature of school life, equivalent controls were introduced for other schools in Bern. Over the next 32 years Ida Hoff developed the service, inoculating hundreds of girls and providing to parents, every spring, reports about their daughters' physical development, although she tended to not refer to these aspects of her work in public speeches. Her programme for the children included gymnastics, prophylaxis and hygiene, metaphorically "removing the stockings from the dirty feet and legs". Reflecting the endemic medical problems of the time and place, she was involved in struggles against several major epidemics of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

flu Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...

and

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

. Hoff was also centrally involved in the Swiss move to cut down Thyroide (''"Kropf"'') disease. A driving force behind this campaign was the medical professor Fritz de Quervain (1868-1940). In 1923 de Quervain asserted that the Swiss people, so richly over endowed with

goitre A goitre (British English), or goiter (American English), is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland. A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly. Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are ...

s, should be able to look forward to a golden age unencumbered by these swellings. He noticed that goitre was rare among the children in the Jura region where the public water supply included naturally occurring

, and there was also iodine in locally sourced table salt and milk. There was virtually no naturally occurring iodine in the Bern diet, however. Researchers at the time determined that there was very likely to be a connection between the absence of dietary iodine and thyroid disease in Bern. As a schools doctor Hoff engaged in the campaign. Girls were given special sweets/candies containing iodine, flavoured and bulked out with fortifying

malt extract Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as " malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar ...

. Although the formulation for the tablets may have been connected with the Hamburg-based Hoff family business, the special "Majowa" sweets provided to school children in Bern were produced in

Wander AG Wander AG (officially: "WANDER AG") is a food producer that is owned by Associated British Foods and is based in Neuenegg (Canton of Bern, Switzerland). The company employs about 300 people in Switzerland. Its most well-known products are Ovomalt ...

the at the Ovalmaltine factory. The campaign was a great success. After seven years the number of children with

induced by

Iodine deficiency Iodine deficiency is a lack of the trace element iodine, an essential nutrient in the diet. It may result in metabolic problems such as goiter, sometimes as an endemic goiter as well as congenital iodine deficiency syndrome due to untreated ...

was down from 60% to 10%. Ida Hoff produced tables illustrating the highly successful campaign against

. These were exhibited in 1928 at the first ever SAFFA (Schweizeische Ausstellung für Frauenarbeit ''"Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work"''). The exhibition attracted ten times more visitors than had been anticipated and took in ten million

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

. The delighted all-female organising team, having captured popular attention, also dragged a giant model of a snail round

in order to illustrate the speed with which their campaign for women to have the chance to vote was progressing. Hoff enjoyed her part in the event. She also involved herself in the accompanying programme of publicity. Her work as a school doctor was celebrated in a frieze produced by Hannah Egger (1881 - 1965) for the " emaleSchool doctor room" at the SAFFA (exhibition). Not withstanding her other activities, it was her work as a school doctor that most defined Hoff's work, and the necessary intensity of this work was redoubled during the early 1940s because of the need to recruit and train up additional female colleagues to make of for male colleagues whose medical skills had been redeployed to war related work caused by the international war in which all the states surrounding Switzerland (other than

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 ...

) had directly involved themselves. In May 1945 the war in Europe ended, however, and Hoff, who had celebrated her sixty-fifth birthday a few months earlier, retired from her work as a schools doctor.

Anna Tumarkin: friend and partner

Anna Tumarkin (1875-1951) became a distinguished Swiss philosopher. Tumarkin had been born in Dubrowna in the

, but had ended up in

where her brilliant academic career included a number of "firsts". She was the first woman at Bern university - and only the third in Switzerland - to obtain a Habilitation (higher academic qualification). The two women also had their Jewish provenance in common. Tumarkin was five years older than Hoff, and had originally been an acquaintance of Ida's mother, Anna Hoff. The two Annas - the "Auskultantin" Anna Hoff and the enrolled student Anna Tumarkin - met up in the welcoming ambience of the open house kept by the philosophy lecturer Ludwig Stein, and during the 1890s they took to sitting together in lectures at the university. More than a decade after her mother's death, and more than one year after establishing herself as a self-employed medical practitioner, Ida Hoff moved to larger premises in the Amthausgasse in the heart of the old city. With space to spare, she persuaded Anna Tumarkin to move in. Tumarkin had already attracted attention as Bern's first female professor. What began as a practical house sharing arrangement blossomed into a lifelong partnership between the two women. In Spring 1921 they moved together into a new home in the Hallwylstrasse, a few buildings along the street from the (subsequently much enlarged)

Swiss National Library The Swiss National Library (, , , ) is the national library of Switzerland. Part of the Federal Office of Culture, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields, disciplines, and media connected with Switzerla ...

. They filled their home "with beautiful old furniture" and set aside a room as their own library, containing "much sought after books". In 1925, for the first time, Hoff and Tumarkin together visited Tumarkin's family in

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

, which at that time was in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. In character and temperament Hoff and Tumarkin were completely different. Hoff was a forceful and practical character who faced the world with determination, warm cheerfulness, and "eyes wide open". Tumarkin had an "other worldly" aspect: she was more focused on abstract thought, and instinctively sought to bring every question back to basic principals. Hoff was able to sensitize her friend to the practical need for women to be given the vote, so that Tumarkin became a supporter, and indeed helped to compile a catalogue of women's literature for the SAFFA (exhibition). Doctor Hoff hugely admired the philosopher's scholarship, frequent flashes of intellectual brilliance and endless curiosity driven academic research. Professor Tumarkin appreciated the security provided by the doctor's boundless capacity for nurture. There is no compelling evidence for or against the inevitable mutterings that the two became lesbian lovers. On the subject of marriage, in a discussion that apparently referenced her own intensively lived life, Ida Hoff on one occasion remarked, "With a man, I really never would know where I should start." (''"Ich wüsste wirklich nicht, was ich noch mit einem Mann anfangen sollte!"''). Friends concluded that she had never felt the need to marry because her work absorbed all her capacities for "limitless devotion" and "true self sacrifice". It is certainly true that she sometimes deferred her scheduled holidays because she needed to look after her sick patients.

Automobiliste and tourist

Hoff and Tumarkin were lovers of nature and of the arts. This was part of what pushed Hoff into becoming one of Bern's first female car owners and also one of the first doctors in the city who learned to visit her patients' homes by car without a chauffeur. Bern's license plates for motor vehicles began with the number "1000": Hoff's car carried the license plate "2151". While she was learning to drive she had a recurring nightmare involving children who had been run over. She therefore drove her car elegantly but with extreme care through the city streets. When they had free time the two women liked to drive in the mountain road network being constructed in the countryside towards

Interlaken Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern. It is an important and well-known tourist destination in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss ...

to the east and the

Lake of Geneva Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent () ...

to the south. Hoff had at one stage wanted to study

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

, and was enthusiastic about the natural splendours of the mountain roads, alongside which "no flower could hide in the undergrowth". On Sundays the women also liked to visit culturally important towns, country churches and interesting local museums. Another member of the expeditions, sometimes, was the local artist Rudolf Münger (1862-1929). Münger had been persuaded by his sister-in-law, Luise "Lysi" Münger Leder to paint a portrait of Ida Hoff in 1923. With his wife, Heidi, he liked to accompany Hoff and Tumarkin on their Sunday afternoon drives to favourite walking locations such as the

Schwarzsee Schwarzsee () or Lac Noir (; ; rarely ; ), is a small lake in the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland with an area of . The lake in the Swiss Prealps is bordered by the peaks of Schwyberg (1,628 m) in the West, Les Reccardets (1,923 m) and Spitz ...

and nearby

Fribourg or is the capital of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and district of Sarine (district), La Sarine. Located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss Plateau, it is a major economic, adminis ...

. Münger recorded in a diary his enthusiastic or critical impressions of art works or natural features encountered during these afternoon excursions. The cultural highlight of Hoff's and Tumarkin's shared travel experiences took them beyond the surrounding cantons, however, and involved a visit to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in the spring of 1927 which they undertook with a travel company called, appropriately, the "Hellasgesellschaft". Tumarkin recorded her impressions in a "travel book" and contributed a lengthy reportage to "Der kleine Bund".

Sharing the suffering: family

Hoff and Tumarkin were both Jewish, with relatives in parts of Europe that were badly affected by the

Shoah The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. In 1925 and 1937, the friends made two lengthy visits to Tumarkin's relatives in

, then a part of

Greater Romania Greater Romania () is the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved after the Great Union or the related pan-nationalist ideal of a nation-state which would incorporate all Romanian speakers.Irina LivezeanuCultural Politics in Greate ...

, today in

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

. The city had been the scene of ferocious antisemitic pogroms at the start of the twentieth century, and the coming to power in Germany of the Hitler government paved the way for race-based persecution and slaughter in the 1940s as the German and Soviet armies fought for control over the

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

region. Many of Tumarkin's family were horribly persecuted, deported, and in some cases killed. While Ida's father, Siegfried Hoff (ca. 1845-1896) had emigrated, first to the United States and later to the Russian Empire, his elder brother Leopold Hoff had remained in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and managed the family firm. In 1905, newly qualified, Ida Hoff had traveled to Berlin to gain medical experience. She had taken an indirect route, traveling via Hamburg to visit her Uncle Leopold's family. On that occasion she had made a deep impression on her cousin Clara, both on account of her "unconventional lifestyle" and because of the surgical skill with which she dissected a roast chicken. The cousins remained in touch, and in the summer of 1936 Cousin Clara, who had not yet been deprived of her German passport by the Nazis, but nevertheless by this stage had relocated to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, visited Ida and her friend Anna. By this time Clara Carstens-Hoff had a teenage daughter of her own, Li Carstens, who accompanied her mother on the family visit to Switzerland. Li, like her mother 21 years earlier, was deeply impressed by Ida.Li Carstens, quoted by Franziska Rogger. Cousin Clara and her daughter survived the Hitler years. Other relatives, friends and acquaintances were killed. Hoff and Tumarkin were badly affected by the gruesome fate of relatives. As their friend and confidant Georgine Gerhard recalled after Hoff's death, "that such horrors could be inflicted on the Jews without a storm of indignation bursting out across the entire world weighed on them heavily. Ida was also deeply unsettled by the less than laudable reactions of the Swiss authorities in dealing with holocaust refugees, and some of the manifestations of antisemitism within Switzerland."

Final years

Hoff's final years were not entirely untroubled. She suffered problems with her ears which made it necessary for her to undergo periodic surgical interventions which were very painful. She also developed heart problems. More painful, however, was the illness and suffering of her friend Anna Tumarkin. Despite the care Hoff was able to lavish on her dying friend, eventually Tumarkin, now aged 75, had to be transferred to the "Siloah Diakonissenhaus" in Gümligen, on the south side of the city in the direction of

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

. Anna Tumarkin now faded away rapidly, dying six weeks later on 7 August 1951. Hoff's own will to live never entirely returned. She tried to channel her energies into work as much as possible. She also formulated new travel plans. An invitation to visit her cousin Clara - now living in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

- provided an element of light at the end of her tunnel of grieving. But her failing heart left her short of energy. She was forced to rest during the morning hours, only able to emerge towards the end of the afternoon to attend to a few long time patients. On the afternoon of 4 August 1952, by now aged 72, her heart began to fail more completely, and she died early the next morning, a couple of days before the first anniversary of Anna's death. Her body was cremated: the ashes were placed in an urn in Anna Tumarkin's grave in Bern's Bremgarten Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoff, Ida Russian emigrants to Switzerland People from Bern 20th-century Swiss physicians Swiss suffragists Swiss women's rights activists 1880 births 1952 deaths Jewish suffragists 20th-century Swiss Jews Swiss people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century Swiss women physicians Swiss women physicians