Six months after the painter and graphic artist Jakob Steinhardt (1887–1968), his wife, Minni, and their daughter, Josefa, hastily left Berlin, they received this postcard in Tel Aviv bringing them news from their old homeland. The sender was Meta Abramczyk (1876–1942), who had begun working as the secretary of the Berlin Secession artists‘ association in 1915 and was the group‘s girl Friday. Nicknamed "Metella," Abramczyk was friends with many of the artists, including Jakob Steinhardt, who had joined the Berlin Secession in 1918 and was appointed to its board in 1929.

The Steinhardts learned from her that the situation at the Berlin Secession had changed dramatically. "None of our old friends show up anymore," she wrote. She was now "vegetating" with the painter and etcher Paul Paeschke, the "only surviving remnant" at the association‘s office at Budapester Strasse 10 in the district of Charlottenburg. "So much has changed since your departure," she added and gave the Steinhardts news about mutual artist friends such as Eugen Spiro, Jozsef Bato, Joseph Oppenheimer, Walter Trier and Max Pechstein. Like Steinhardt, many of these artists had already fled Germany; others were making plans to do so, their livelihoods in jeopardy because of their artistic convictions or Jewish origins.

Abramczyk also lamented that the Romanisches Café, a well-known meeting place for artists not far from the association‘s office, now had a "completely different clientele." Most of the regulars had emigrated and the painter Heinrich Heuser was "just about the only one left at the abandoned table where we regularly met."

Unlike many of her artist friends, Meta Abramczyk did not manage to get out of Germany in time. In October 1941 she was deported to the Łódź Ghetto and in May 1942 she was transferred to the Chelmno extermination camp, where she died on 7 May 1942.

In British-administered Palestine Jakob Steinhardt initially gave private art lessons before being hired as a teacher at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. He was director of the academy from 1955 to 1957.

Franziska Bogdanov

Herrn and Frau
Jacob Steinhardt
Tel Aviv
(Palestine)
Yarkon Street 82

Berlin, 11 September 33

My dear Steinhardts!

You‘ve been quiet far too long and I no longer hear anything from you. None of our old friends show up at the Berlin Secession anymore. I‘m vegetating with Paeschke at the office as the only surviving remnant. The rooms are desolate and bare. The exhibit has been closed for a long time now and it’s unclear when a new one will come. I won‘t be working on it myself. My time here will soon be over. Now, I would like very much to hear some news directly from you. Please write a long letter to my private address at Luitpoldstr. 23, Berlin W 30. Don‘t forget! No doubt you are getting all the news from the new arrivals from Berlin. Spiro is here and wants to open up a painting school in his studio in October. Bato wants to go to America, Oppenheimer is in London, and Trier is here. The Pechsteins are still in the countryside. So much has changed since your departure! And will continue to change. The Romanisches Café has a completely different clientele. Heuser is just about the only one left at the abandoned table where we regularly met. And sometimes Jaeckel. The building where the Berlin Secession has its office is being completely remodeled and we have to leave.

So now I want to hear some news from you.

My best to all of you, including Josepha.
Your
[Metella]