Berta Zuckerkandl

Berta Zuckerkandl
Bertha Zuckerkandl (Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, 1886)
Born	Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps (1864-02-13)13 February 1864
Died	16 October 1945(1945-10-16) (aged 81)
Language	Austrian
Nationality	Austrian
Spouse	Emil Zuckerkandl
Relatives	Moritz Szeps (father)

Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps (born Bertha Szeps; 13 April 1864 – 16 October 1945) was an Austrian writer, journalist, and art critic.

Bertha Szeps was the daughter of Galician Jewish liberal newspaper publisher Moritz Szeps and was raised in Vienna. She was married to the Hungarian anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl.

Plaque commemorating Zuckerkandl's salon, Palais Lieben-Auspitz, Vienna

In 1886 she married Zuckerkandl, then University of Graz professor of medicine. In 1888 she would move with him to Vienna where he had obtained a professorship. From 1888 until 1938, Zuckerkandl led an important literary salon in Vienna, an informal weekly get-together, originally from a villa in Nußwaldgasse, Döbling, later in the Oppolzergasse near the Burgtheater. Many famous Viennese artists and personalities including Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, Arthur Schnitzler Stefan Zweig, Egon Friedell and others, such as French sculptor Auguste Rodin when in Vienna, frequented the salon. Protégés of the salon include Anton Kolig and Sebastian Isepp of the Nötsch Circle. Her sister Sophie (1862–1937) was married to Paul Clemenceau, the brother of the French President Georges Clemenceau, and, therefore, she also had good ties to Parisian artistic circles. She translated a number of plays from French to German and was a cofounder of the Salzburg Music Festival.

In 1938 because of Anschluss, she saw herself forced to emigrate, first to Paris and later to Algiers. She returned in 1945 to Paris and died there in the fall of the same year. She is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Works

• My life and History. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, 1939. Translated by John Sommerfield
• Die Pflege der Kunst in Österreich 1848–1898.
• Dekorative Kunst und Kunstgewerbe. Wien, 1900
• Zeitkunst Wien 1901–1907. Hugo Heller, Wien, 1908
• Ich erlebte 50 Jahre Weltgeschichte. Bermann-Fischer Verlag, Stockholm, 1939
• Clemenceau tel que je l'ai connu. Algier, 1944
• Österreich intim. Erinnerungen 1892–1942. Propyläen, Frankfurt/Main, 1970 (paperback edition: Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main, 1988; ISBN 3-548-20985-8)

Further reading

• Lucian O. Meysels: In meinem Salon ist Österreich. Berta Zuckerkandl und ihre Zeit. 3. A. Herold, Wien 1985 ISBN 3-7008-0263-3
• Armelle Weirich: Berta Zuckerkandl. De Klimt à Rodin, une salonnière et critique d'art entre Vienne et Paris, Rennes, PUR, 2023.

See also

• Salon of Berta Zuckerkandl