Hanne Wassermann Walker as photographed by Trude Fleischmann.
The UBC Library has acquired the personal archive of Hanne Wassermann Walker, a significant figure in Vienna's cultural and social life before the Second World War.
Relatively unknown until now, she was born in 1893 to a Jewish family in Vienna and left Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938, eventually emigrating to Canada and becoming a B.C. resident in 1943. She died in 1985.
Wassermann Walker was at the forefront of the Weimar-era body culture movement. Her gymnastics school and health manuals for women brought her international fame, and students that included artists, film stars and other celebrities.
The archive includes documents, correspondence, photographs and artifacts that span a century. One highlight are documents and photographs that trace her friendship with Trude Fleischmann, a significant Austrian portrait photographer.
UBC archivist Krisztina Laszlo says the acquisition is part of an effort to increase the library's documentation of women’s history.
Source: UBC Library