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Marija Maga Magazinović

1882–1968
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Spouse Gerhard Gesemann
Date of birth October 14, 1882
Date of death 1968
Web address

Personal situation

Born in Užice, Serbia. She finished both primary school and gymnasium in Užice. She attended the Higher School for Girls in Belgrade, and the Faculty of Philosophy from 1898 to 1904. After graduation, she became the first female journalist in the newly founded newspaper Politika (Politics), now the oldest one in Serbia. She travelled to Germany in 1909, starting her education as a dancer. In 1912-13, during Balkan wars, Maga Magazinović was a nurse. Her marriage with the German Gerhard Gesemann lasted three years – from 1914 until 1916. Their son Harald-Rajko died early, and their daughter, Rajna Gesemann, was born in 1917. This is the time when Maga became acquainted with Rudolf von Laban's dance school. Upon her return to Belgrade, in 1919, she reopened her School for Rhythmic and Plastic. She had become a female gymnasium teacher in 1910, and was retired from the post in 1914. During her whole teaching career, and after retirement, Maga Magazinović was a dancer, teacher and theoretician of  modern dance. She died in Belgrade, in 1968. 

Place of birth Užice
Place(s) of residence Germany, Serbia, and Switzerland
Place of death Beograd
Nationality Serbian
First language(s) Serbian
Marital status Divorced
Number of children 2
Name(s) of children Harold-Rajko, Rajna
Gender of children M (1) F (1)
Education University education

Professional situation

She was a feminist, an intellectual, a leftist, a teacher, a translator, a philosopher, and a professional journalist. She was the first Serbian woman who worked as a professional journalist in the oldest Serbian newspaper Politika. She was a professional dancer, a teacher of dancing (she led a school for rhythmic gymnastics for 25 years) and wrote a lot about rhythmic gymnastics, dance, and the female body. She belonged to the Belgrade intellectual circles from the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1920, together with Zora Prica, she established a school for recitation, foreign languages and aesthetic gymnastics, in Belgrade. Her work contributed to the modernization of the patriarchal society in Serbia at that time.

Profession(s) and other activities translator, philosopher, social-cultural activist, nurse, contributor to periodical press, teacher/governess, and actress
Language(s) in which she wrote Serbian
Financial aspects of her career Stipend/allowance/pension
Memberships Of editorial boards

Reception

Reception during lifetime

Reception after death

Authors read by this author

* Only authors in Knjiženstvo DB are shown