Skip to main content

Erna Reich papers

 Collection
Identifier: 6091

  • Staff Only
  • Select an item to initiate a request

Scope and Contents

The Erna Reich papers are predominantly composed of her correspondence with her boyfriend, Emil Kuehne, from 1920-1925. These letters are personal in subject and frequent in number, with the occasional telegram interspersed among them when Emil was waiting for a reply impatiently. The letters often mention meeting points and other such locations throughout Berlin, giving them an interesting historical relevance in terms of the cityscape of Berlin in the 1920s. There is a small amount of other correspondence with assorted people as well as some of Erna's personal notes and effects from both early on and the later years in Los Angeles. The other three items (the Perpetual Calendar, the issue of Atlantis magazine, and the screenplay) were found with the Erna Reich materials, but it is unclear how or why they may be related to her.

Dates

  • Creation: 1885 - 1956
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1920 - 1925

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Erna Reich, known later as Sascha Marcuse, was born in Berlin on 1905 August 27. However, throughout the 1920s she made regular trips to a Polish town named Polajewo, perhaps to visit family. From about 1920-1925, she kept up a regular correspondence with her boyfriend, Emil Kuehne Jr. Kuehne, who worked at the N. Israel Department Store in Berlin (likely the location at Alexanderplatz), was somewhat well-to-do. Their letters often discuss personal subjects, as well as places to meet next. In late 1924, however, a mutual friend introduced Erna to Ludwig Marcuse, and soon she had broken ties with Emil to be with him. By 1928, she and Marcuse were married, and from then on she went by "Sascha," making Erna her middle name. Because Marcuse was Jewish, the two moved to France not long afterward, living there from 1933 until 1939. In 1939, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California, where Marcuse eventually took up a position as a professor of German and philosophy at the University of Southern California. While they were fortunate enough to be able to relocate when they did, their lives were still marked with some tragedy: the couple narrowly survived a 1940 car crash in Los Angeles that left Ludwig near death in the hospital and Erna with severe poison ivy and shock. After years of life in her adopted home of California, Erna died of cancer while still residing in Los Angeles on 1967 February 20, at the relatively young age of 62. Marcuse survived her, eventually making his way back to Germany. While very little is known of Erna Reich's life outside of these elementary facts, this collection of her correspondence and other effects provides a window into her life, as well as the world of early 1920s Berlin. [Some of this information was gathered through the Ludwig Marcuse Papers, Collection no. 0209, USC Special Collections.]

Extent

0.42 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

German

Abstract

Papers of Erna (Sascha) Marcuse, nee Reich (1905-1967). They consist predominantly of her correspondence with a boyfriend, Emil Kuehne, during the early 1920s, but also include other miscellaneous personal effects from her years in Los Angeles. Erna Reich was a native Berliner who resided there throughout her early life until her marriage in 1928 to Ludwig Marcuse. In 1933, the couple moved to France; in 1939 they relocated to Los Angeles where Marcuse took up a teaching position at the University of Southern California.

Related Materials

Ludwig Marcuse Papers, Collection no. 0209, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Title
Finding aid for the Erna Reich papers
Subtitle
Reich (Erna) papers
Status
Completed
Author
Emily Hodgkins
Date
2015 September
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States