Or as we say, Nomen est Omen. As wiki explains it “is the theory that a person's name can have a significant role in determining key aspects of job, profession or even character.”
Well. We have the year 2014. I am in Germany. I am German.
(This is a post about a beautiful, intelligent woman, btw…)
Certainly we get flooded with facts about WWI now – after all “we” played a major role in it, right?
We and the (in this case) darn technology.
We? Men?
Let me shortly just tell you:
At school we got more than flooded with infos about an Austrian man with a moustache and it was not Charlie Chaplin.
Actually, thinking of the school subject “history” this is more or less all I can remember from senior classes :-(.
And turn on the telly you have a good chance to see that man again.
War guilt… our war guilt….
WWI was no concern there. So… back to Nomen est Omen… and that beautiful woman.
Clara Immerwahr, have you ever heard of her? She was beautiful. She was smart. Born in 1870 she got her magna cum laude in chemistry (as first German woman) in 1900 – and killed herself 15 years later.
Clara… that´s clear. Immerwahr. Immer = always, wahr = true.
She killed herself after her husband, also a chemist, – his name was Haber (haben – have… and she didn´t take it) – generated and took responsibility for the use of lethal gas in WWI.
She called it openly “perversion of science” and shot herself – what did he do? Prepare for more lethal missions. And then he helped developing Zyklon B that “helped” getting rid of six million “ethnically not wanted” humans in WWII.
His wife was Jewish, btw, before marrying him.
Life can be an a###, huh? And Nomen est Omen, at times.
Sorry for this historical trip. But the story of this woman fascinated me... The story is here on pic 11 and "our" Charlie Caplin... puts himself in pic 26....
Would you kill yourself – being a role model for women (maybe?) – for something your husband/partner did?
How come they were a couple after all when their values were so darn different?
Their son emigrated to the US and killed himself later of shame for his father´s work, too. To top it off her and her husband´s ashes were buried together.
Now I truly wonder…. Will we get flooded with the subject WWI until 2018???
I may also add: My father´s father did not join the army in WWII. My father was a kid back then. My Mum´s family wasn´t German. So much for my “war guilt”.
(And one of my cousins was one of the first conscientious objectors in Germany.)
And Ingo´s Dad (to get back to this post´s title) once sent me a birthday-card that stated according to my name I am an honest person you can always rely on.
Just saying :-)
3 comments:
Interesting about the names and our roles. I had never heard of Clara, but she certainly must have been a very clever woman to have a degree in 1900! I don't think I would kill myself for my husband's bad deeds, but who knows? Times are different and I suppose back then family honour was very important. That the son also killed himself is quite tragic.
Like Sami I don't think I would kill myself either, I think suicide is a really cowardly action and besides I have two children that would be devastated.. hopefully I won't have to make that decision :)
Not the best site and your name isn´t in there, either, Sami, but here goes: http://www.behindthename.com/
True, back then family-values were different, but she should´ve thought of her son, too.
Grace, hmm, from the few times I´ve met Pat I reckon there is no such danger for you ;-)
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