Die Mosse-Frauen

Four headstrong women from three generations of a prominent family. All four came from one of the most well-known German-Jewish families of the bourgeoisie, yet their life paths could hardly be more different. Emilie Mosse became the representative of the Rudolf Mosse publishing and press group in Berlin during the German Empire. Martha Mosse was the first woman to hold the position of a Prussian police councilor in the Weimar Republic, served as an official of the Jewish community, and survived deportation to Theresienstadt. Dora Mosse was regarded as a passionate art historian, was a partner of Erwin Panofsky in the circle of the Warburg Library and the scholarly community in Princeton exile. Hilde Mosse, the daughter of a Berlin publisher, a doctor and psychiatrist in New York, co-founded the first social psychiatric facility for the Black community of Harlem. Elisabeth Wagner explores what motivated and distinguished these women—headstrong key figures in the history of the Jewish Mosse family—how they acted, and what values guided them.