Alice Schalek

Alice Therese Emma Schalek (1874-1956) was born in Vienna to a liberal, assimilated Jewish family of Bohemian origin. She first gained public attention in 1902 with the publication of her novel Wann Wird Es Tagen? (When Will It Happen?), and later in 1905 with Das Fräulein: Novellen (The Mademoiselle: Novelettes), both written under the male pseudonym Paul Michaely. Her novels dealt with the bourgeois troubles of women’s honour, examining the boundary between modernity and tradition.^[1] The central focus of her first novel is women’s lack of access to education, and the repercussions of this in later life.  Over time, her concerns about the exclusion of women in society deepened, leading her to join several women’s organisations.^[2] After publishing her serialised novel Schmerzen der Jugend (Aching of Youth) in 1909, Alice shifted her focus to travel reporting. She developed a unique style that differed from traditional travel writing, emphasising her own personal experiences and subjective impressions of the landscapes she traversed. Her travel books read more like adventure stories, with a focus on seeking the unknown and the extraordinary, often imbued with elements of danger.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Alice was accredited as an official war correspondent, having already gained experience and knowledge through her travel writing and photography. She had frequently published her writing in the Viennese press, establishing herself as both writer and lecturer.^[3] Alice’s numerous newspaper articles and the two books she authored on her war experiences garnered significant readership, her war lectures receiving an audience of over 40,000 attendees.^[4]She is considered the most prominent female member of the Austrian Kriegspressequartier(KPQ; the War Press Office), which was the central propaganda organisation of the Austro-Hungarian military forces. Compared to 271 male journalists at the KPQ, only 7 women were accredited war correspondents.^[5] During the war it was rare for women to be accredited by the military, many confined to reporting events in the areas in which they lived and worked. Stephanie Seul describes Alice’s dedication to journalism as such: “Unlike many of her male colleagues in the War Press Office, Schalek actually visited the war zones she was writing about, taking personal risks and exposing herself to shooting and shelling”.^[6]

Alice faced significant challenges as a woman in the male-dominated fields of photography and journalism. Her critics often portrayed her as both insufficiently feminine and overly burdened by stereotypical female traits. Unmarried, independent, and working in what was deemed a ‘masculine’ profession, she was criticised for lacking traditional ‘womanly’ qualities, yet simultaneously discredited for exhibiting traits considered inherently feminine. These double standards were frequently highlighted in the media, where her so-called ‘feminine characteristics’ were seen as her greatest flaw, overshadowing her professional achievements. The societal focus on these ‘feminine traits’ are best epitomised in a Bosnische Post article:

“This emancipated un-woman, who relieves herself in the feuilleton section, has been offered the opportunity to liberate her nerves by photographing corpses and to tour with her lectures through half a hundred cities”.^[7]

Ironically, Alice herself was acutely aware of these societal contradictions and had explored them in her pre-war fiction. Her novels, Schmerzen der Jugend and Wann wird es tagen?, contain characters that reflect the very prejudices she encountered, revealing the societal expectation that a woman could neither fully embody traditional femininity nor successfully step into a male-dominated role without criticism. Her life and work thus became a testament to the relentless gender-based scrutiny she endured, illustrating the pervasive struggle women faced in challenging societal norms.

Following the Anschluss, the National Socialists annexed Austria and Alice’s photographic career came to a sudden halt. She was arrested by the Gestapo in March of 1939, and accused of dispersing ‘atrocity propaganda’ after the authorities uncovered images from a trip to Palestine at her home.^[8] Perhaps due to her wide network of beneficial connections, she was able to escape to London that same year. She then migrated to the United States, where she continued to lecture occasionally. She remained in the U.S. until her death on November 6th 1956, aged 82.

By Ruby Mitchell