Elfriede Alice "Piete" Kuhr (1902–1989), known professionally as Jo Mihaly, was a German dancer and writer.

Early years and war diary

Kuhr grew up in Schneidemühl (now

Piła Piła (; ) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population was 71,846, making it the city in the voivodeship after Poznań and Kalisz and the largest city in the north ...

), then about 80 miles from the German-Russian border, now in Poland. The town was the site of a World War I

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

camp, and Kuhr's rediscovered adolescent

diary A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digita ...

was published late in her life as ''Da gibt's ein Wiedersehn'' (1982). It has been translated into English by Walter Wright, a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

and former

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

, under the title ''There we'll meet again, a young German girl's diary of the first world war''. It gives an unusual insight into German experience of the war: 'The fact that the diary is written by a German teenager does make it unusual. The fact that this teenager went on to oppose war, to dance her anti-war message on the Berlin stage, to marry a Jew, and to be forced to flee Germany in 1933, gives an added poignancy to the diary.'

Expressionist Dancer

Jo Mihaly started as a dancer in 1923. In 1933 she was well known for an anti-war dance she had devised with the World War I military boots, sword and helmet. She belonged to the German expressionist dancers of the 30s, along with

Mary Wigman Mary Wigman (born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann; 13 November 1886 – 18 September 1973) was a German dancer and choreographer who pioneered expressionist dance, dance therapy, and movement training without pointe shoes. She is considered on ...

Rudolf von Laban Rudolf (von) Laban, also known as Rudolph von Laban (; 15 December 1879 – 1 July 1958), was an Austro-Hungarian dance artist, choreographer, and movement theorist. He is considered a "founding father of expressionist dance" and a pioneer of ...

Gertrud Bodenwieser Gertrud Bodenwieser (3 February 1890 – 10 November 1959), also known as "Gertrude", was a dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and pioneer of expressionist dance, expressive dance. Early life The daughter of Theodore and Maria Bondi, a wea ...

and

Gret Palucca Gret Palucca (born Margarethe Paluka; 8 January 1902 – 22 March 1993) was a German dancer and dance teacher, notable for her dance school, the Palucca School of Dance, founded in Dresden in 1925. Life and work Margarethe Paluka was born in M ...

. She was an opponent of the persecution of Jews, fleeing Germany for

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 ...

in 1933 to escape being taken to a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

like so many of her activist socialist friends. She continued to dance there from 1934 to 1938.

Novelist

Mihaly started by contributing articles and poems to the magazine of the ''Brotherhood of Wayfarers'' around 1925, and met editor

Gregor Gog Gregor Ambrosius Gog (1891–1945) was a Germany, German Anarchism, anarchist, writer, and activist. He is most known for his founding of Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists, the Vagabond Movement, which advocated for the rights of a dissi ...

in 1927. She then wrote her first novel, ''Michael Arpad und sein Kind'', a novel about a

gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

family. She wrote another novel in 1938, "Gesucht: Stepan Varesku". She wrote other books but only her World War I diary has been translated into English.

Media portrayal

Elfriede Kuhr is one of the 14 main characters of the series ''

14 - Diaries of the Great War Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

''. She is played by actress Elisa Monse.

References

Notes

* Biographical notes in ''There we'll meet again'' * ''L'espace qui crie en moi - Hommage à la danse expressionniste allemande'', a 1991 documentary. * Petra Josting: ‚Zigeuner‘ in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Weimarer Republik am Beispiel von Jo Mihalys ‚Michael Arpad und sein Kind. Ein Kinderschicksal auf der Landstraße’ (1930). In: Petra Josting/Walter Fähnders (Ed.): ''"Laboratorium Vielseitigkeit". Zur Literatur der Weimarer Republik. Festschrift für Helga Karrenbrock zum 60. Geburtstag''. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2005 (D) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihaly, Jo 1902 births 1989 deaths People from Piła People from the Province of Posen German female dancers Expressionist dancers 20th-century German women writers German women diarists 20th-century German diarists