I have cherished you and your art for seven decades. I have been intent on unveiling your life and career, to benefit those who will appreciate what you contributed. The catalyst for all my exploration has been my pride in everything you achieved. This website is my testament to you – to give you a long-lasting and enduring space where you can be celebrated and remembered, as you so rightfully deserve.
Dedicated to Pamina by Ian Markham, 2024
As Pamina Liebert-Mahrenholz’s great-nephew and next of kin, I have felt a strong lifelong bond with her. She was my mother’s favourite aunt. My family has experienced this bond with her for themselves.
Around the end of Pamina’s life, I was studying her vast sketch of the Liebert family tree showing her many cousins, and it hit me that I was her only blood relative remaining in her father’s extensive branch. This explained why she had always invested so much time on me and my family. My closeness with Pamina has continued throughout the 20 years since her death in 2004. I owed it to her to meticulously catalogue her artwork and delve into the details of her life.
She poured immense talent and passion into her craft and was proud of what she accomplished. It was only through my research that I realized the true magnitude and scale of her artistic successes in pre-war Germany. The traumatic circumstances she endured during her 30s and 40s in Germany and Britain temporarily hindered her career as an artist. But she continued her career well into her 80s, enjoying the greater celebration and prestige that came her way.
Her legacy lives on through the artistic treasures she left behind – the vast collection of her finished artworks, identifiable photographs, and memorabilia of her life. Her numerous imaginative and colourful creations resonate deeply within me.
Celebrating Pamina means also celebrating her Rolf, a talented and celebrated photographer in his own right. My life has been greatly enhanced by them both. He enlightened me with his photography, anecdotes, and youthfulness. His witty and outrageous remarks produced as much “Oh no, Rolf!” reaction from Pamina as delight from me. The National Portrait Gallery’s Collection includes ten Rolf Mahrenholz photographic portraits.
Ian Markham, 2024
Several key individuals have been essential to my research on Pamina Liebert-Mahrenholz and the website design. I would like to acknowledge my profound thanks to them:
My family – Janet, Graham, Miranda, Claire, Andrew, Lesley: Their patience, encouragement, and active help over my decades of research have been beyond words. They each contributed to the website design in many ways. Pamina doted on my wife Janet for 30 years, and on our children Graham, Claire, and Andrew throughout their childhood. Janet’s generosity in giving back to Pamina and enhancing her legacy has been exemplary, always helping me in a major way towards my quest.
Beyza Cakir: This website could never have existed without her artistry, creativity, and patience. She dedicated many hundreds of hours towards a successful launch, seeking perfection throughout.
David Wilson (Intrigue Design Consulting): As developer of this website, he used expert craftsmanship and cunning insight in building a solution that catered to our ever-changing and sometimes wild ideas, while sourcing the right software for every purpose.
David Glasser (Executive Chair of the Trustees) and Sarah MacDougall (Director of Scholarship) at Ben Uri Gallery and Museum are highly regarded in the arts community in Britain. They have generously given me much time by sharing their expertise in Jewish, refugee and immigrant art, providing advice on how to promote artists such as Pamina, and verifying facts about Pamina’s exhibition history.
Sara Angel (Founder and Executive Director) and Stephen Smart (recent member of the Board of Directors) at Arts Canada Institute have been extraordinarily gracious in devoting substantial time to mentor and guide me in the creation of this website, despite their pivotal roles and demanding schedules in the Canadian art scene.
A tribute and thanks to Agi Katz (1937-2021):
Agi Katz’s relationship with Pamina originated with Agi’s role as curator at Ben Uri Art Gallery for Pamina’s solo exhibition in 1981. She was tremendously thoughtful towards Pamina during the 1980s and 90s, and also towards me during and following her curation of the Two Berliners: Pamina Liebert-Mahrenholz and Margaret Marks exhibition at her Boundary Gallery in 2008. I greatly miss her counsel.
I am also indebted to others who have generously helped me with my quest in numerous specific ways:
Colin Mills for his excellent photography of about 1,200 of Pamina’s artworks in 2004-05.
Edith Krannich for her numerous translations from illegible old German handwriting into English and for her deep research into Germany’s history, unearthing some sensational results.
Maureen Jennings, whose perspective on the plight of “enemy aliens” in England during World War II was most beneficial to me. She also authored the murder-mystery novel “Season of Darkness” which includes a character named Pamina, based on the real Pamina Liebert-Mahrenholz.
Kerry Tobin for her transcriptions of Pamina’s many handwritten letters from her Isle of Man internment camp.
Maria Cioffi and Voula Kokkinakos for accurately and enthusiastically transcribing many of Pamina’s post-war letters and tapes.
Wendy Thirkettle (Manx National Heritage) and David Wertheim (Rushen Heritage Trust) in the Isle of Man for their wartime internment expertise and ever-willing help.
Martha Pflug-Grunenberg (Universitätsarchiv, Universität der Künste Berlin) for her research and insights into the bronze medal that Pamina was awarded in 1931 for a sculpture she submitted to a competition of the United State Schools of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin – a predecessor of Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK Berlin).
Mark Herbert, QC, co-executor of Pamina’s estate, for his dedication to Pamina’s best interests throughout her life and beyond. He explained to me the effects of British law on Pamina and Rolf, and shared remarkable recollections of his and his wife Shirani’s long friendship with them.
Dorothy Salant for detailing the close relationships, both before and during the war, which existed between her parents and Pamina and other Liebert family members. Pamina’s lifelong love of Hampstead in London, as a hub for modernist artists, was no doubt inspired by Dorothy’s parents when Pamina first visited England in 1934 and spent time with them.
Inge Håkansson (1926-2022), Lesley Winninger, Sylvia Winninger, and Peter Winninger. Inge was Pamina’s second cousin on her maternal side of the family. Inge (in Sweden) and her close relatives the Winningers (in Ontario) have shared with me copious amounts of information and photos about their family history. From the early 1930s, Inge enjoyed family events that were filmed by Rolf and attended by Pamina and Pamina’s mother, aunts and uncles, among others. During my recent visits to her in Sweden, I was honoured that at her age she was able to entertain me so vividly with her childhood and adult memories of Pamina and Rolf. Losing her in 2022 gave me the strong sense of the end of a 90-year era.
Anne Murcott and Liz Pritchard, relatives of Pamina, for their many insights and amusing anecdotes about Pamina and Rolf, among other family members, over the decades.
Elizabeth Burney-Jones who knew Pamina and Rolf as neighbours for the final 20 years of Pamina’s life and who, as Pamina’s confidant, gave me precious insights.
Helen Grunberg who added greatly to my understanding of Pamina’s traits, physical needs, and friendships, having been her primary caregiver for numerous years before Pamina’s death.
Eva Piotrowska, another of Pamina’s caregivers in the final years, who was with Pamina at her death. She described to me Pamina’s idiosyncrasies and preferences.
Linda Collins, a close friend of her neighbour Pamina, who shared with me a wide range of hilarious or touching topics they covered in their many conversations.
Alan Sainer who answered my many questions about his grandmother Eve Liebert who knew Pamina closely for nearly 60 years. It was Eve to whom Pamina wrote her many letters from the Isle of Man internment camps.
Anne Wright-Howard, Lucie Sparham and Joan Barrington whose reactions to some of Pamina’s more unusual paintings were treasure to me.
Ian Markham, 2024