Anna Schiff
Documents associated with this person:
Sister-in-law to Jeanette Schenker (née Schiff), thus also to Heinrich Schenker from 1919. Wife of Paul Schiff, mother of Lisl Schiff. She may have been non-Jewish.
Nothing is known of her parentage, childhood, or education. She married Paul Schiff in July 1921 (OJ 14/8, [1], July 19, 1925). She remarked to Jeanette: “We married devoid of all material interests; our unique bond was our love and mutual conviction, the intellectual grounding for our life together.” Paul worked for most of his career for the insurance company Riunione Adriatica, but was also politically highly active as a social democrat, for which he went to jail at least twice. In describing how their marriage worked, Anna remarked “Lisl and I are the gravity that prevents Paul from doing what he ultimately would prefer to do today rather than tomorrow were we not thus. He perhaps feels it less than do I.” (OJ 14/8, [1].
Nothing is known of Anna's life after 1938, or the circumstances of her death.
Correspondence
Correspondence from Paul and Anna Schiff to Heinrich and Jeanette Schenker survives as OJ 14/8 (15 items: 1925–38), seven of which are from Anna, and four jointly from Anna and Paul. She also copied one letter from Victor Schiff to Klara Hatschek and one from Victor to Paul Schiff that Paul forwarded to Jeanette.
Contributor
- Ian Bent