Artworks for Children

Tom Seidmann-Freud

Tom Seidmann-Freud’s work gained currency in Germany and many other parts of Europe in the late 1920s. There is hardly another illustrator from this period whose books experienced such popularity.

The artist was born in Vienna on November 17, 1892 as Martha Gertrud Freud. Her mother Mizi (Marie) was one of Sigmund Freud’s sisters. She adopted the first name ‘Tom’ when she was fifteen. Her parents realized she had a talent for drawing early on and encouraged her. At the age of nineteen, she accompanied her father to England to study art in London. This is where she created her first two picture books, which were strongly influenced by Art Nouveau. In 1914, her Baby Liederbuch (Baby’s Songbook) was published, with which she had her first success.

After the First World War, she lived in Munich for a while with her sister Lilly, and made the acquaintance of the philosopher Gershom Scholem and the writer Schmuel Josef Agnon there. The political unrest of the Bavarian Socialist Republic prompted her move to Berlin. There, Tom met Yankel Seidmann, whom she married in 1921. The pair became acquainted with writer, translator and publisher Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873–1934), who was already very well-known at the time.

Little Fairy Tales for Little Children

In the book Eser sihot li-yeladim al pi Andersen, Grim we-aherim im ziurim meet Tom Seidman-Froid (literal translation: Ten Stories for Children after Andersen, Grimm and Others with Illustrations by Tom Seidmann-Freud) there is one fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen (“The Princess and the Pea”) and one by Ludwig Bechstein (“Schlauraffen Land”). All the others come from the Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and some of these are lesser-known stories. They may have been chosen because they are quite short: little fairy tales for little children, who are to be made familiar with these stories first. They are usually no more than a page long, and the stories are easy to understand.

Worldwide Distribution

Later, the publisher Herbert Stuffer released Tom Seidmann-Freud’s play and counting primers, which were highly valued by Walter Benjamin. Her books were translated into many languages. They found their way into the luggage of people who emigrated to Palestine, or who had to leave their homes because of the National Socialists’ seizure of power, and so they spread, albeit in small numbers, around the world.

The Library of the Jewish Museum Berlin was able to acquire this edition in 2005.

Ulrike Sonnemann, Head Librarian