Alwina Gossauer

The retouched photograph was published on occasion of the opening ceremony of the Seedamm railway causeway.

• Name — Alwina Gossauer • Born — 1841 • Birthplace — Rapperswil • Died — 1926 • Place of death — Rapperswil • Field — professional photographer since 1865

Alwina Gossauer was born in Rapperswil, where her parents operated a business and where she spent her childhood. At the age of 18, Gossauer married Johann Kölla, who worked as a saddler. They lived in Zürich, and in 1864 her husband learned to make photographs. In the attic of their house at Napfgasse near Neumarkt, Zürich, they set up one of the first photography studios in Zürich. In the same year, Kölla was sentenced to a fine of one month in prison because he had photographed nude dames. Shortly after, the family moved to Rapperswil, where Kölla bought an inn at the Rapperswil railway station, and again, set up a studio. Alwina learned photography by working in the atelier, and started photographing in 1865. In 1868 Kölla committed an offense of making counterfeit bank bills and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and 10 years banishment from the Canton of St. Gallen. From the bankruptcy of her husband, Alwina saved a portion of household effects and the valuable photographic equipment.

In the 1870s, the divorce was expensive and forfeited Gossauer's independence: as it was customary at that times, a legal guardian was assigned, and every contract had to be confirmed by the custodian. Nevertheless, in his annual reports the custodian also mentioned Gossauer's business acumen, her eagerness, that she was able to earn money and to find her own living without having to take any financial help. Around the 1890s and 1900s, Gossauer used a folding camera type Engel-Feitknecht for reportages and landscape photography. Alfred Engel Feitknecht was the designer of the camera made in Switzerland; between 1878 and 1894 about 6000 cameras were produced. In 1892 Gossauer was able to fulfil a long-cherished wish, thanks to her successful work as a photographer and businesswoman: at the Obere Bahnhofstrasse lane she bought land and built a three-storey commercial and residential building. On the top floor, she established a modern photography studio with a glass roof, and a large sign in capital letters wore the name of her business: "Photographie A. Gossauer".

Jean Kölla, Gossauer's son, learned his mother's photographic craft, just as her daughter Alwina (1862–1946), who remained unmarried, ran the business under the name of her mother until the 1920s. Her son Albert did not train as a photographer, but later worked together with his brother Jean. The youngest daughter Caroline married the photographer Karl Stalder; in 1920 they ran her mother's business in Rapperswil under the name K. Stalder-Kölla until the 1940s. "Alwina Gossauer was a fighter," the pastor said in 1926 at her grave.

• 2015 Stadtmuseum Rapperswil-Jona: Der Zeit voraus – Drei Frauen auf eigenen Wegen: Marianne Ehrmann-Brentano Schriftstellerin und Journalistin (1755–1795); Alwina Gossauer Fotografin und Geschäftsfrau (1841–1926); Martha Burkhardt Globetrotterin und Malerin (1874–1956).