HANNAH SASSE
1899 - 1944
The life of Hannah Sasse was out off before its peak,
an eminence already well in sight. Superficially
considered, it was not spectacular. Born in Toledo,
Ohio, a city very different in flavor from the pic-
turesque Hannoverian village of Hille from which Dr.
Otto Sasse brought his bride, Maria Siveke, to Amer-
ica in 1898, Hannah Sasse called Toledo her home dur-
ing her entire lifetime. On Put-in-Bay Island,
famous for Commodore Perry's victory as for his words,
Dr. Sasse bought a second house for summer relaxation,
one that was to become increasingly dear to his family.
There it was natural to revert to the simpler ways of
Hille tradition, especially since the majority of the
island inhabitants were also German, at least by de-
scent. German was the language of the house, and so
foreign was its atmosphere that one autumn, when the
time came to return to Toledo, Hannah Sasse's sister
was heard to complain: "Do we have to go back to
America?" In Put-in-Bay Hannah Sasse learned to feel
at home in and on the water, and surrounded herself
with a veritable menagerie of animal friends.
From kindergarten to College one school, the Smead
School of Toledo took charge of her formal education,
a happy choice that brought contact with teachers who
allowed her to find wholehearted enjoyment in learning.
Mrs. Sasse, herself a child at heart, carefully super-
vised the play time of her daughters. Her home became
the gathering place for the children of the neighbor-
hood.
Hanah Sasse entered Vassar College when the first
World War was still in eruption. It was character-
istic of her that she did not permit antagonism and
prejudice to distort her appreciation of whatever she
found good in the country of her ancestry as in the
country of her birth. Appropriately the subjects
upon which her interest crystallized were English and
German literature and language. She read with avidity
and also wrote. Some of her poems were published in
the Vassar Miscellany. Courses with Miss Wylie, Miss
Peebles, and Miss Struck intensified her desire to
become a teacher. She never forgot that it was Vassar
College which pointed out the way in which she could
best expand and be of use in the teaching profession.
HANNAH SASSE (Continued)
The invaluable experience of assisting Miss Peebles
as research secretary in London and Oxford the year
after graduation from College in 1921 was followed
by two years of teaching Latin and English at the
Colonial School for Girls in Washington, D.C. In
preparation for a more rewarding career further study
was indicated. Accordingly"Hannah Sasse enrolled in
the Graduate School of Radcliffe College under Profes-
sor John Livingston Lowes, earning her Master's degree
in 1925 in the field of English. Before entering
upon several years of teaching at the school of her
childhood in Toledo she spent two absorbing terms as
Miss Wylie's assistant in the Summer School for
Workers in Industry at Bryn Mawr College. At this time
it became apparent to Professor Marian P. Whitney,
then head of the Department of German at Vassar Col-
lege, that a person of Hannah Sasse's worth and bi-
lingual background would be assured of a successful
career in the field of College German. It was she who
persuaded her to study for a Doctorate with this
change of focus.
Not long after matriculating at the University of
Munich she encountered her first enemy in the form of
an illness serious enough to have discouraged all
thought of a professional career. Returning to her
home she seconded her father's efforts by devoting
herself to the battle for health under his wise di-
rection. Not until the fall of 1930 was she able to
accept an appointment as instructor in the German
Department at Vassar College on a half time basis.
She had to learn to husband her strength with the
help of her alter ego, the car. Some of this faculty
will remember a succession of them from the ragged
roadster with the flapping side curtains, affectionately
called "Der Taugenichts", to the super-deluxe convert-
ible Ford coupe, with dachshund Loki, her horizontal
shadow, barking from the window, ears flapping in the
Windo
For four good years Hannah Sasse forged ahead with all
enthusiasm. In 1934 a new and more threatening ill-
ness beset her. This too was faced, and consigned to
the past. Again, Hannah Sasse could make plans for
acquiring the higher degree demanded by her ambition.
In 1936 a special grant for research from the Board of
Trustees and later a Faculty Fellowship prepared the
HANNAH SASSE (Continued)
way for two thoroughly happy years spent at the
University of Freiburg. She returned to America
with the title of Doctor of Philosophy and that of
Assistant Professor at Vassar College, also with
her published thesis on Friedericke Caroline Neuber,
Versuch einer Neuwertun . It was her intention one
day to write a Biography in English of this impor-
tant actress and writer of the late Baroque period.
From Europe she brought back memories of quiet work
in the little apartment facing the Schwarzwald, of
long walks through the fields, of the pleasures of
the road as she chugged along in her German car
from Freiburg northward to the ocean - and of
threatening tremors of war.
maturing rapidly as a scholar and a teacher, Hannah
Sasse's joy in the subjects she taught was contagious.
Enthusiasm and wide interests made her instruction a
living experience for her students and her influence
a constructive element in their lives. More and more
her opinion began to count not only in Department
matters but in the College at large. She was a defin-
ite person, liking forceful language. While she was_
at all times ready to consider many sides of a ques-
tion, she was never reluctant to take an unpopular
stand. In recognition of her qualities as a leader
she was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Pub-
lications at the time of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
of the founding of Vassar College, in l940. This
meant assuming the responsibility of choosing and
publishing in time for the celebration a group of
works, including books, music, and the reproduction
of a painting, and all this under the unpropitious
conditions of wartime.
In l94l Hannah Sasse was promoted to the rank of
Associate Professor. A second onslaught of illness
in 19h3 necessitated an operation from which recovery
was temporary. In spite of increasing weakness and
discomfort she carried on at her post until within
a few weeks of her death on June fifteenth l9hh, and
with such success and self-forgetfulness that few of
her students were aware that she was critically ill.
In Hannah Sasse's death Vassar College has lost one
whom it will be difficult to replace. She will be
HANNAH SASSE (Continued)
generally missed for her outgoing friendliness and
helpfulness, her exuberant vitality, her unfailing
effort to promote understanding between countries,
and her constructive dissatisfaction in striving for
the best interests of Vassar College.
Her life, though truncated, had completion through
the way in which it was lived. With clarity and de-
tachment she faced facts and dealt with them. Never
admitting the possibility of defeat, she was able to
look forward to the future with optimism to the end
and beyond it. Hers was a personality in good equi-
librium. Of necessity, and often against her in-
clination, she was obliged to observe the law of
measure. Strength as well as finances had to be care-
fully budgeted. She was efficient but not too meticu-
lous; her scholarship was solid yet not pedantic;
although thoroughly artistic she was no visionary; her
strongly intellectual leanings did not lack the vi-
talizing human touch. Already in early years she had
discarded fear as a factor in her life. This enabled
her to enjoy the present with undivided zest, to live
freely and wholly. Therefore, it is only temporally
considered that Hannah Sasse's life can be said to
lack completion. The words of that other hero of
Put-in-Bay might well be hers: "We have met the enemy
and they are ours."
Ruth J. Hofrichter
Marta Milinowski
Ada M. Klett
XI - 171-173