Content
Paths on hard grass:
Memories of Germany, South Africa and England
Ruth Weiss:Wege im harten Gras:
Erinnerungen an Deutschland, Südafrika und England
Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1994
303 S.
ISBN 3-87294-622-6
"Wege im harten Gras" (Paths on hard grass) was published in 1994 as a revised edition of the autobiography "Lied ohne Musik" (Song without music) (1981). Ruth Weiss, born in 1924 as Ruth Löwenthal in Fürth, was driven out of Germany by the Nazis with her family and came to South Africa in 1936. Here she grew up and later, as journalist for European and African media, she documented the turbulent developments in Southern Africa from the 1940’s until the end of Apartheid. She became a fearless fighter who, in solidarity with black South Africans, stood up against racism and Apartheid.
In South Africa she was declared persona non grata by the Apartheid regime and was not allowed to enter the country. She subsequently went to Rhodesia, but there she was expelled as an unwanted foreigner. Together with her young son Alexander, she lived in Lusaka, London and Cologne where she fought unabatedly for that which she had recognised as being right: a society without discrimination and suppression, no matter whether in the name of Anti-Semitism or Apartheid.
The biography of Ruth Weiss can be read on three levels. As an emigration account of a German Jewess – in DIE ZEIT she is regarded as "one of the last authors in exile" – as a personal account of a strong woman and single mother, as the personal witness of an observer who experienced the tumultuous political history of southern Africa at first hand and often in the centre of power, which includes Zambia’s independence, the Rhodesian civil war, Zimbabwe's independence, and, especially, the fight against Apartheid and the development of the new South Africa.
Review
Ruth Weiss: Wege im harten Gras:
Erinnerungen an Deutschland, Südafrika und England
(Paths on hard grass: Memories of Germany, South Africa and England)
These verses by Mascha Kaléko were used by the journalist and author, Ruth Weiss, as a preface to her autobiography "Wege im harten Gras" (Paths on hard grass) which was published in 1994 as a completely revised edition of the story of her life "Lied ohne Musik" (Song without music, 1981). Indeed there is no better motto for the life of this amazing woman who was born as Ruth Löwenthal in Fürth in 1924, driven out of Germany by the Nazis and who fought tirelessly and boldly in solidarity with black South Africans against racism and Apartheid in South Africa and the former Rhodesia.
Her friend, Nadine Gordimer, refers to the life of Ruth Weiss as "a model for the condition humaine in our century." Already as a child she was uprooted and never found a home in the geographical sense of the word. She led a restless life between southern Africa and Europe, always with the determination to resist against racism and suppression, where ever she found it. "That is why I can understand the people of the third world," she says. "They were separated from their roots and had to develop and understand new social structures, […]. I experienced the same."
Her story can be read on three levels. As an emigration account of a German Jewess – in DIE ZEIT she is regarded as "one of the last authors in exile" – as the personal account of a strong woman and single mother, as the personal witness of an observer who experienced the tumultuous political history of southern Africa at first hand and often in the centre of power, which includes Zambia's independence, the Rhodesian civil war, Zimbabwe's independence, and, especially, the fight against Apartheid and the development of the new South Africa.
Initially, there was nothing in the life of the young woman that would indicate the extraordinary path she would travel. At an early age she left the bourgeois atmosphere of her parent's home to join the Independent Cultural Association of German-speaking Jews in South Africa where she met the much older Hans Ludwig Weiss and married him. In his intellectual circles she was regarded as the shy little girl, but on the quiet started a brilliant career in the insurance industry, which in those days ways almost exclusively a male domain. Her husband left it up to her to earn an income which left her no choice, as she humbly writes, to emancipate herself. Only under great duress and after 20 years of marriage was she able separate from this man. Also the second man in the life of Ruth Weiss, the father of her son Alexander, exploited the young and still insecure woman. One gets the impression that her own life only began when mother and son moved between South Africa, Rhodesia, Zambia, London and Cologne and Ruth became known as a critical and incorruptible journalist.
Between 1942 and 1994 she worked for numerous South African and British newspapers and broadcasting corporations, even from time to time for the Deutsche Welle. Always prepared to resist, she researched, reported, made numerous contacts and friendships, and, especially, she listened. However, her openness and impartiality did little to help her. During a visit to Rhodesia the brave and uncomfortable journalist was declared a persona non grata by the South African government and she was refused a re-entry. Towards the end of the sixties she also had to leave Rhodesia, so she went to London where she worked for the "Guardian". Zambian and Zimbabwean independence she experienced in Southern Africa as an advisor and trainer. Her time as duty editor at the Deutsche Welle in Cologne is not filled with fond memories; the institution was suffocating on petty staff rivalry. As correspondent for the "Financial Times" and as economic editor of the "Times of Zambia" she soon returned to Zambia. She spent a long time in Lusaka where she also began to write novels and short stories. Currently Ruth Weiss lives in Munster/Westphalia.
