Elisabeth Jungmann

Elisabeth Jungmann
Elisabeth Jungmann
Born	1894
Died	28 December 1958(1958-12-28) (aged 63–64)

Elisabeth Jungmann (Lady Beerbohm) (1894 – 28 December 1958) was an interpreter and the secretary, literary executor and second wife of caricaturist and parodist Sir Max Beerbohm.

Born to a German Jewish family in Lublinitz in Upper Silesia, Jungmann was the daughter of Adolf and Agnes Jungmann and the sister of Otto Jungmann and sociologist and historian Eva Gabriele Reichmann. She served as a nurse for the German Army during World War I. Jungmann was the personal secretary and English interpreter for Gerhart Hauptmann from 1922 to 1933, and then for Rudolf G. Binding. Binding had hoped to marry Jungmann but was prevented from doing so by the Nuremberg Laws.

Jungmann had been a friend of the Beerbohms since 1927 when she had translated at a meeting between Beerbohm and Hauptmann, who wintered in Rapallo in Italy. She became a regular visitor to their home, the Villino Chiaro in Rapallo. Because she was a Jew Jungmann left Europe and went to Britain at the start of World War II, where she resumed her friendship with the Beerbohms at their temporary home in Abinger. During the War Jungmann worked for the Jewish Central Information Office in London as a research assistant. She went on to work for the Political Intelligence Department, a section of the British Home Office. After the War she stayed in London, working for the Control Commission for Germany and Austria which was involved in developing the "cultural revival of Germany". Beerbohm wrote a letter to the Aliens Tribunal on her behalf urging her suitability for British citizenship. When Jungmann's mother died in 1942 while being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Beerbohm wrote a letter of condolence to her.