Speaker 1: Before we get started, a quick warning. This episode contains
Speaker 1: mentions of suicide and strong language. Hello from Wonder Media Network.
Speaker 1: I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Wamanica. Historically, women have
Speaker 1: been told to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves. Some
Speaker 1: have used that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities.
Speaker 1: For others, a disappearance was the end to their stories,
Speaker 1: but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies.
Speaker 1: This month, we're telling the stories of these women. We're
Speaker 1: talking about disappearing acts. In nineteen forty, the British newspaper
Speaker 1: The Daily Telegraph ran a story a best selling German
Speaker 1: author had taken her own life while an exile in Holland.
Speaker 1: But there was never a funeral, not even a casket,
Speaker 1: and the report left people to wonder how had a
Speaker 1: once celebrated author's story and did in suicide, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: was that even true. Let's talk about Ermgard Coin. Ermgard
Speaker 1: was born in nineteen oh five in Berlin. We don't
Speaker 1: know many details about her early life, but we do
Speaker 1: know that she began her career as an actress in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen twenties. But Ermgard's true calling was the
Speaker 1: written word. In nineteen thirty one, she published her debut novel,
Speaker 1: Jilgi One of Us. The story was of a poor
Speaker 1: German girl on a quest to find her birth mother.
Speaker 1: Armguard was hailed as an exciting new talent in German literature.
Speaker 1: The New York Times wrote in its review that the
Speaker 1: book stands out in delightful contrast to the books written
Speaker 1: by men because of the wholesome freshness of its presentation
Speaker 1: and views. And when the renowned German modernist author Alfred
Speaker 1: dr Blin met Ermgard, he had this to say, if
Speaker 1: she writes even half as well as she speaks, she'll
Speaker 1: be the best female novelist Germans had yet. But Ermgard
Speaker 1: was launching her literary career at a dangerous time, right
Speaker 1: as the Nation Party was coming to power in Germany,
Speaker 1: and Ermgard had no tolerance for it. She wasn't explicitly
Speaker 1: critical of the Nazi Party, but her writing showcased a
Speaker 1: strong distaste for the way the regime was degrading German
Speaker 1: culture and the quality of daily life in Berlin. In
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, Ermgard published her second novel, The Artificial
Speaker 1: Silk Girl. It chronicled the efforts of a young woman
Speaker 1: in Berlin to become a burlesque star. The novel's heroine,
Speaker 1: a working class nineteen year old named Doris, does everything
Speaker 1: possible to reach a life of luxury. No spoilers here,
Speaker 1: but Doris's story does not have a happy ending. Armguard
Speaker 1: used Doris's journey to criticize the aspects of life under
Speaker 1: the Third Reich that felt most suffocating. She was especially
Speaker 1: critical of the Nazis version of German womanhood. She wrote,
Speaker 1: If a young woman from money married an old man
Speaker 1: because of money and nothing else, and makes love to
Speaker 1: him for hours and has this pious look on her face,
Speaker 1: she's called a German mother and a decent woman. If
Speaker 1: a young woman without money sleeps with a man with
Speaker 1: no money because he has smooth skin and she likes him,
Speaker 1: she's a whore and a bitch. It was quotes like
Speaker 1: that one that put Ermgard in hot water. Commercially, her
Speaker 1: books did extremely well. The Artificial Silk Girl sold out
Speaker 1: its first printing of fifty thousand copies, but Nazi officials
Speaker 1: thought Ermguard's work was anti German and casting vulgar aspersions
Speaker 1: against German womanhood. She was one of many authors during
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties to have her works labeled as asphalt literature,
Speaker 1: basically meaning that they were foreign and not representative of
Speaker 1: true and proper German culture. Her books were blacklisted and burned.
Speaker 1: At first, Ermgard fought back. She tried to sue the
Speaker 1: Nazi Party for loss of income after they pulled her
Speaker 1: books from shelves, but she was unsuccessful and only put
Speaker 1: more of a target on her back. The Gestapo pulled
Speaker 1: her in for questioning, and in nineteen thirty six she
Speaker 1: fled the country for Belgium. She spent the next few
Speaker 1: years in exile, floating from France to the Netherlands, continuing
Speaker 1: to write all the while. She published several novels during
Speaker 1: this period, including nineteen thirty seven's After Midnight. This book
Speaker 1: is darker and more directly hostile to Adolf Hitler in
Speaker 1: the Nazi Party. It reflects Ermguard's growing despair at the
Speaker 1: fascist takeover happening in Germany and the hatred, paranoia, and
Speaker 1: desperation had inspired in people around her. She wrote, I
Speaker 1: don't wonder at it anymore when I see people being
Speaker 1: crazy and unhappy. I only wonder at it when I
Speaker 1: see them acting like normal people. Eventually, Ermgard could no
Speaker 1: longer find commercial success with her published works. She'd fallen
Speaker 1: from fame and favor in Germany. Strict censorship kept readers
Speaker 1: from discovering her stories. She'd also confessed in personal letters
Speaker 1: to engaging in self harm and struggling with alcoholism. When
Speaker 1: her suicide was reported in nineteen forty, it seemed plausible enough,
Speaker 1: yet another exiled writer driven to despair during the war,
Speaker 1: But Ermgard wasn't actually dead. Once the rumors of her
Speaker 1: death had begun to circulate, possibly initiated by Ermgard herself,
Speaker 1: she seized on the opportunity to disappear. She convinced a
Speaker 1: bureaucrat to make a false passport for her and snuck
Speaker 1: back into Germany. To the outside world, Ermgard was gone, buried,
Speaker 1: but in reality she was living in Kulan with her parents,
Speaker 1: flying under the radar. She remained hidden from public life
Speaker 1: for the next several decades, only visiting with friends she
Speaker 1: was sure wouldn't give her away. But in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: Ermgard's books experienced a resurgence in popularity. A new generation
Speaker 1: of German youth wanted to make sense of the war.
Speaker 1: The Holocaust, how people lived under the Third Reich, and
Speaker 1: Ermgard's books provided insight into just that. Her novels were
Speaker 1: reissued and she experienced a second chance at literary acclaim
Speaker 1: with the new audience. Ermgard died in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 1: In an interview after her death, Ermgard's daughter Martina recalled
Speaker 1: her mother's lifelong regret at how her career had been
Speaker 1: sidetracked by the Third Reich. She always said that the
Speaker 1: Nazis took her best years from her. All months, we're
Speaker 1: talking about disappearing acts. For more information, find us on
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan,
Speaker 1: my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow