UBC Library acquires the personal archives of Hanne Wassermann Walker which also documents her friendship with Vienna photographer Trude Fleischmann...
One of the most interesting archives of photographs and documents we have ever handled has recently been acquired by UBC Library, Rare Books and Special Collections.
One of the most interesting archives of photographs and documents we have ever handled has recently been acquired by UBC Library, Rare Books and Special Collections.
In
the near future, we will tell the story of amazing discovery of the Hanne Wassermann Walker Archive 32 years ago.
For a quick summary:
UBC Library’s Rare Books &
Special Collections (RBSC) has acquired the personal archive of Hanne Wassermann Walker (1893-1985), a
significant figure of pre-WWII Viennese cultural and social life. Her
remarkable story has been relatively unknown until now. Born in Vienna to a
Jewish family, Hanne Wassermann Walker left Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938.
After living briefly in England, and then in New York, she went on to emigrate
to Canada, taking up residence in Vancouver and later North Vancouver with her
second husband, George Dickson Walker. She became a resident of British
Columbia in 1943. A well-known figure of Viennese society during the 1920s and
1930s, Wassermann Walker was at the forefront of the Weimar-era body culture
movement. Her school of gymnastics and health manuals for women brought her
international fame and recognition from reputed medical institutions and
clinical specialists. Among her correspondents, friends and students were film
stars, artists and members of the European aristocracy.
One of the highlights is the collection of documents and
photographs tracing Wassermann Walker’s life-long friendship with Trude
Fleischmann, ranked among the most significant portrait-photographers of the
20th century. Not unlike HanneWassermann herself, Trude Fleischmann was forced to leave
Vienna during the war, to relaunch her career on the North American continent.
The archive contains hundreds of photographs taken by Fleischmann during the
height of Wassermann Walker’s successful career in Vienna.
For the full UBC Library press release:
