Emīlija Benjamiņa-Cedar Herald Index

Emīlija Benjamiņa (sometimes transcribed Emilija Benjamina) (10 September 1881,īlijaBenjamiņ Riga — 27 September 1941 Usollag labor camp, Soviet Union) was a Latvian businesswoman. Acknowledged as the "Press Queen" in her home country, she became one of the wealthiest women in Europe at the time, and the richest person in interwar Latvia.

Early life

Emīlija Simsone was the middle daughter of Andris Simsons, a railway employee, and Ede Usinš, who worked on the expedition line of a German newspaper, leading Emīlija to grow up in a press printing environment. Emīlija's two sisters were stage artists; the eldest, Mina (stage name Tusnelda) was an opera singer, while the youngest, Annija (Aicher) was an actress who made a name for herself in both the Latvian and German-language theater.

Emīlija Benjamiņa

She started working at the age of 17 as an advertising agent and theater critic for the German-language newspaper, Rigaer Tagesblatt, which was owned by one of the prominent members of this Imperial Russian city's Jewish community, Blankenstein.

Emīlija Benjamiņa

She married Ernests Elks-Elksnītis and became Emīlija Elks. But the marriage was not a happy one, Elks became an alcoholic and reportedly beat her.

Emīlija Benjamiņa

Publishing career

Sometime in 1904 or 1905, Emīlija met a man, married named Anton Benjamiņš. Twenty-one years older than Emilija, he was a bankrupt former school teacher and failed shop-owner who had come to Riga looking for work, which he found as the reporter on Latvian issues of the Rigaer Tagesblatt.

Over time, Emīlija Elks and Benjamin took over the practical running of the Rigaer Tagesblatt. Emīlija ran the business, while Benjamiņš was the editor. In 1909, Emīlija divorced Elks. For Benjamiņš however, that step would prove to be much more complicated and time-consuming as his existing spouse did not agree, and they also had three children.

In 1911 Emīlija and Benjamiņš decided to live together. On 8th of December, Emīlija founded her own newspaper using funds she had obtained from her divorce settlement. She also persuaded all the Latvian-speaking journalists at the various German and Russian language newspapers in Riga to work for her, initially free of charge, to get a truly Latvian newspaper off the ground. Jaunākās Ziņas (The Latest News) was the first, mass distribution newspaper to be published in the Latvian language; Emīlija, as Emīlija Elks, was the publisher and Benjamiņš was her editor-in-chief. Emīlija's business sense and Anton's dedication to hard work soon bore fruit, and Jaunākās Ziņas blossomed. It employed many who would go on to be important names in the development of Latvian literature and culture and indeed of the written Latvian language itself, including the writer Kārlis Skalbe, the linguist Jānis Endzelīns.

At the outbreak of World War I Jaunākās Ziņas continued to publish as long as it could and made a name and market for itself by publishing the announcements of refugees searching for their family members, free of charge. But eventually, as four different sides (the Imperial German Army, the Bolsheviks, the pro-German local Landwehr, and finally the Army of the new Latvian Republic) marched through Riga, Jaunākās Ziņas shut down and during the Bolshevik occupation of Riga, Emīlija and Benjamiņš had to take refuge in Berlin for some six months.

Just before the war started Jaunākās Ziņas had received delivery of the latest industrial printing presses from Germany; now, since Germany was an enemy country of Imperial Russia, the bill no longer had to be paid and still later, when the war was over, the German firm in question was bankrupt and no longer existed. Later, the Bolsheviks "expropriated" the printing plant and used it to print their propaganda leaflets; when they were driven out, they abandoned tons of paper. This supplied the newly restarted Jaunākās Ziņas for free for over a year, a not insignificant commercial advantage at a moment in time when the paper was a very precious and expensive commodity in short supply.