Regina Ullmann (1884–1961)

Regina Ullmann was born to an Austrian Jewish father and a German mother in St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 1902, she moved with her mother to Munich, Germany, where she became friends with a circle of avant-garde writers and thinkers such as Thomas Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke. Regina had two daughters out of wedlock, who were raised by foster parents. In 1911, she converted to the Roman Catholic faith. With help from Rilke, who had become her mentor, she found some financial support for her writing, first from a publisher and later from Swiss patrons and Catholic aid agencies. She published poetry, short stories and verse drama, and first rose to fame in 1921 with the publication of an acclaimed collection of short stories called Die Landweg (The Country Road). In 1935, she was expelled by the Nazis from the German Writers Association and the following year she left Germany for Austria. Following the Nazi Anschluss (annexation) of Austria in 1938, she returned to Switzerland, where she lived and worked for the next 20 years, until shortly before her death.