Timeline
According to her Theresienstadt death certificate, Emilie Goldberger was born in Buda (formerly Ofen) in Hungary. Another source states Göding/Hodonín (near Brünn/Brno). Her parents were Heinrich Goldberger and Chaje Goldberger, née Haft
At the age of only 14 1/2 she is admitted to the Conservatory of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna in the class of Prof. Anton Door
According to the Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt, Emilie Goldberger gives her first concert of her own in the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal and justifies great expectations. She plays Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Heinrich von Herzogenberg's Fantastic Dances No. 4, Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543) in the arrangement by Franz Liszt and the Sonata op. 110 by Ludwig van Beethoven, which will become her showpiece. Her extraordinary memory has been praised by the press. The singers Thekla Friedländer and Wilhelm Speyer perform with her
Emilie Goldberger gives an unspecified concert in the legendary Bösendorfer Hall in the Palais Lichtenstein in Herrengasse. Again her unusual memory is praised in the press. It was not yet a matter of course to play from memory. This painting shows the hall, but not Emilie Goldberger
Emilie Goldberger goes on a summer retreat to Baden near Vienna, where she will not only give concerts, but also piano lessons. Her first concert takes place in the enormous heat of the dog days on June 23 at the hotel Stadt Wien, together with Miss Irma von Cselko, a well-known singing master. Emilie Goldberger "delighted with excellent technique" and achieved resounding success with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's 1st Piano Concerto op. 25, accompanied by Robert Götz on a second grand piano
Emilie Goldberger traveled to Frankfurt am Main and became one of 12 female students of the pianistic legend Clara Schumann in the first piano class of the newly founded Dr. Hoch's Conservatory for one semester
Emilie Goldberger went to Paris! There she played on January 28 in the famous Salle Érard of the world famous piano maker, a concert with "beaucoup de talent" with works by Beethoven, Bach, Scarlatti, Weber, Schubert, Chopin, Rubinstein, Saint-Saëns and Ketten together with the royal court pianist of the Netherlands Louis Coenen, cellist Anton Hekking, singer Erminia Frezzolini (pictured) and "Smit Del[]ugne, Selbach et Mlle de Varhalmy" with whom she received "rich applause" for her "solid qualités de mécanisme et de style"
In Paris she was also heard by Walter Ibach, the famous piano producer, who suggested to his brother to hire Emilie Goldberger as a professional pianist. A handwritten letter of application from Emilie Goldberger to the Ibach company with her beautiful handwriting and signature has been preserved. She applied for a job as a piano demonstrator
Emilie Goldberger was in Munich that day in the ballroom of the Central-Säle, where she gave a benefit concert in favor of the asylum for the homeless with the participation of the k. b. court actress Philomene Hartl-Mitius, the opera singer Emilie Lang-Rongé and the pianist Lily Scherzer, the famous k. b. court actor Ferdinand Lang, the cello virtuoso Heinrich Bast and the string orchestra Neithardt with piano accompaniment by Prof. Adolf Schimon
Emilie Goldberger gave another concert in the hall of the Munich City Museum, which was again poorly attended. A newspaper critic criticized – by hearsay. The C minor Trio by Beethoven was played, as piano solo pieces Prelude and Fugue by Bach, a Saltarello by Stephen Heller, the Notturno in A by John Field, a Gavotte by Joachim Raff and – also as a showpiece – again the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt. A Frl. von Sicherer gave various songs; court cellist Carl Ebner's playing "satisfied". Emilie Goldberger performed "good but nothing outstanding, so that this critic let the concert pass without a trace"
The "courageous Hungarian" Emilie Goldberger also plays in Augsburg in the hall of the Stock Exchange on Rathausplatz, where she is supported by members of the City Theater – Messrs. Deppe, Hungar and Slunicko. As she has performed before in the Augsburg Music School, the critic of the Augsburger Abendzeitung praises her "brilliant technique and soulful expression, light, shadow and fire, delicacy, calmness and security with pronounced talent with rare artistry"
Emilie Goldberger moved to Göding (today Hodonín, 50 km south of Brno) and played in a concert in mid-May "as a favor." The program included a Nocturne in F-sharp major, an Impromptu in A-flat major, a Valse in E minor, and a Hungarian Fantasy by Franz Liszt "with a mastery that delighted the public, especially the more musically educated part of it, and provoked the liveliest expressions of applause"
That day, Emilie Goldberger was a guest in the Brno Redoutensaal with Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, accompanied by the concertmaster of the Brno City Theater – Carl Koretz – on the violin. She also played Franz Schubert's Andante with Variations, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Saltarello, and several unnamed Chopin works, all "performed with verve" as an "able pianist who executes solid pieces of music excellently to lively applause." The performance continued with Mrs. Cardis, Mrs. Hausner, Mr. von Lenor, and Mr. von Lichtenberg. The Tagesbote from Moravia and Silesia quoted the Augsburger Abendzeitung about Emilie Goldberger's artistic abilities
Where was Emilie Goldberger during this time? I could not yet find any clues for these years. However, her mother Anna died at the beginning of July 1887. An obituary informs that she was 63 years old and buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery in the Israelite section. In the advertisement Emilie Goldberger appears as daughter and Heinrich Goldberger as husband. In Emilie Goldberger's Theresienstadt death certificate, her mother bears the name Anna/Chaje
This month Emilie Goldberger took part in a concert of the Göding Women's Local Group of the German School Association, together with the concert singer Miss Helene von Morini and Miss Anna von Suppè on the violin – granddaughter of the famous composer Franz von Suppè. Emilie Goldberger played the B minor Scherzo by Frédéric Chopin "with noble artistic conception and also received special applause for her performance of a concerto by Mendelssohn=Bartholdy and for her sensitive rendition of Schubert=Liszt's Gretchen am Spinnrade"
Emilie Goldberger again performed in the concert hall of the modern Palais Ehrbar in the 4th district, Mühlgasse 28, with the participation of Vilma Gormasz and Julius Desing, a member of the Vienna Court Opera. The following piano recitals in this concert series also featured the Rosé Quartet in the Großer Musikvereinssaal, harpist Edith Martin in the Kleiner Musikvereinssaal and Marie Fillunger – mistress of one of Clara Schumann's daughters – in the Bösendorfer-Saal
Emilie Goldberger played in the ballroom of the Österreichischer Gewerbeverein the sonatas for piano and violin in F major by Joseph Haydn and G major by Anton Rubinstein "as well as an unprinted piece by Liszt Schlaflos". This piece is considered lost today. The original manuscript was probably in the possession of Emilie Goldberger and/or Julius Desing
An advertisement appears in the Neue Freie Presse in which Emilie Goldberger continues her piano lessons. She was probably back in Bad Ischl or Gmunden or somewhere else entirely for the summer or late summer. Now she lives in Purkersdorf at Wiener Strasse 45, where today the neat yellow villa with lots of white stucco houses a Buddhist institute. In her death certificate from Theresienstadt, Purkersdorf is listed as her home town
Emilie Goldberger appears on a list marked with this day's date as number 908, her last residential address and date of birth recorded therein. She must also bear the compulsory name "Sara"
Emilie Goldberger dies at 7:15 in the morning in Theresienstadt in building E a III in room 310, where the ghetto hospital is located. According to the death certificate, she officially dies of "marasmus" (severe symptoms of deficiency, physical deterioration due to illness or old age), "enteritis" (inflammation of the intestines), "intestinal catarrh" and "weakness due to old age". Her body was probably burnt. According to the plan of the Theresienstadt ghetto, her death chamber has been preserved
The coroner Dr. Curt Schwenk was deported to Auschwitz on December 15, 1943 and murdered. Emilie Goldberger's attending physician Dr. Kurt Weiner was murdered there in 1944, too
During this time, the Nazi organ Völkischer Beobachter contains almost endless lists of expropriations on a daily basis: "Daily official list. Confiscation order. The entire movable and immovable property as well as all rights and claims of the persons listed below are confiscated in favour of the German Reich (Reich Finance Administration) in accordance with § 1 of the Ordinance on the Confiscation of Property Hostile to the People and the State in the Land of Austria of 18.11.1938, RGBl. 1, p. 1620. With the confiscation, all rights and claims of the previous owners shall expire and pass to the German Reich. The Chief Finance President Vienna-Lower Danube, Vienna, I., Hanuschgasse 3, is responsible for the administration and realisation of these assets"
Emilie Goldberger is also on the long list that follows. With this act of confiscation of the property and remaining assets of Emilie Goldberger left in the Jewish old people's home at Seegasse 9, her life is completely dispersed. What happened to her belongings?
There are still many unanswered questions about Emilie Goldberger. Was she still reasonably agile in her last days in Vienna and did she still have pleasant and loving hours there? Was she able to play the piano until old age? That her body lasted so long until Theresienstadt at all? Whether the people in Emilie Goldberger’s wagon could still encourage each other or were frozen in shock?
When Emilie Goldberger died in the Theresienstadt ghetto, the cremation ovens had just been put into operation. There was still time to put the ashes of individual deceased into urns. There is a small probability that Emilie Goldberger received an urn that may still be present. In this case, probably only with many, many apparent “little things” can be done. But only by paying attention to such “little things” can a picture become reasonably whole again, or at least come as close as possible to it.
Deeper research is therefore conditionally still to be done.
Image details:
Screenshot concert announcement November 23, 1876 © Susanne Wosnitzka | Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium Frankfurt a. M., Jahresbericht Jg. 1878/9 (1879) Screenshot © Susanne Wosnitzka | Central-Säle CC BY-SA 3.0 © Rufus46 wikimedia.commons | Screenshot death certificate Anna Goldberger © Susanne Wosnitzka | Collage photographs Anna von Suppè © Andreas Weigel www.starsingars.wordpress.com | Festsaal Niederösterreichischer Gewerbeverein © CC BY 4. 0 Bernhard Krabina | Screenshot deportation list and house Purkersdorf © Susanne Wosnitzka | Death certificate Theresienstadt © www.holocaust.cz | Plan Ghetto Theresienstadt © www.ghettotheresienstadt.de | Screenshot Völkischer Beobacher © Susanne Wosnitzka | all other images © public domain