This presentation will focus on Gertrud Mayer-Jaspers (1879–1974), the sister of the Engels biographer, Gustav Mayer, and wife of the prominent non-Jewish German philosopher, Karl Jaspers. The paper explores how her biography reflects the dilemmas faced by German Jewry in the century following its legal emancipation. 

Lars Fischer is Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge and an Honorary Research Associate in the UCL Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was educated at Queen Mary, University of London and UCL and previously held lectureships in modern European History at King’s College London and German History at UCL. His publications include a monograph on The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 (paperback 2010). He serves on the council of the Royal Historical Society.

By: Diana Franklin
Last updated: Tuesday, 2 October 2012