Hedwig Fechheimer

In 2015 a book from the library of Hedwig Fechheimer was returned.

Hedwig Simon, née Brühl, widowed Fechheimer was born on June 1, 1871 in Berlin. She lived with her family in Leipzig from 1877 and later returned to Berlin, where she studied art history and philosophy. In 1903 she married her fellow student Sigfried Fechheimer, who died of tuberculosis only months later. Hedwig Fechheimer was interested in Egyptology and published numerous writings on Egyptian art in the following decades. In 1917 she married the physician Dr. Richard Simon, who died only a few years later in the early 1920s. Thereupon she lived together with her sister Margot Brühl.

Until 1933 Hedwig Fechheimer was a member of the Expert Commission for the Egyptian Department of the National Museums in Berlin ("Staatliche Museen zu Berlin"). In this function she advocated the return of Nefertiti to Egypt. Hedwig Fechheimer was persecuted as Jewish and like her sister committed suicide on August 31, 1942 to escape the impending deportation.

No conclusions can be drawn about the accession of the volume; it was part of unprocessed stock and does not contain any indications of the supplier or intermediate owners. The object was found in unprocessed depot holdings of the Berlin City Library.