Reading Elsa Gindler: Tracing the Legacy of a Somatics Pioneer

Over the past three decades, Berlin-based movement teacher Elsa Gindler (1885-1961) has received increasing recognition as a pioneer of Somatic practices, body-based psychotherapy and performance techniques. Still, she is little known even within these fields, and her wider relevance remains unexplored. Reading Elsa Gindler addresses the various ways Gindler’s work has been transmitted and passed down, including oral histories, published materials, archival documents and embodied practices. The turbulent conditions of Gindler’s lifetime have led to gaps and discrepancies in what we know about her. Her resistance against the National Socialist regime, the destruction of her papers at the end of World War Two, and the departure of many of her students fleeing Nazi persecution have meant that there are several different “versions” of Gindler. Yet these very challenges make her an important subject for historiographic research. In Reading Elsa Gindler, I amplify the scant information available about her in English by translating materials that have so far only been available in German. I contextualize Gindler within the rich and competitive body culture of her time. I also examine the tradition of physical culture often traced back to François Delsarte (1811-1871) which fed into Gindler’s work. I report on my own visits to the Berlin-based foundation dedicated to Gindler’s memory and that of her close colleague, Heinrich Jacoby. The Foundation maintains a unique balance of archival preservation and continuity of practice. Though my in-person research was limited by pandemic travel restrictions, I was able to study Gindler’s embodied work with those who maintain it in the present. Though Reading Elsa Gindler adds substantially to the information about Gindler, my approach is not to try to create a seamless account. Rather, I look at the various layers of information as sources, drawing attention, wherever possible, to the narrative, editorial, curatorial and pedagogical choices which have been made in presenting them. The gaps and discontinuities in Gindler’s story allow for contemplation of what various types of materials can uniquely add to historical research.

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