 1874 - 1973 (99 years)
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| Name |
Elisabeth Helene Amalie Sophie Freiin von Richthofen |
| Born |
8 Oct 1874 |
Chateau-Salins, France  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Biography |
Else von Richthofen (October 8, 1874 - December 22, 1973), a distant relative of the "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, is known as one of the first female social scientists in Germany, wife of the German economist Edgar Jaffé as well as lover of the economists and sociologists Max Weber and Alfred Weber. Her sister Frieda von Richthofen was the wife of the British novelist D. H. Lawrence.
Life and Career
Elisabeth Helene Amalie Sophie Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen (also known as Else Jaffé) was born in Château-Salins (France). Her father was Baron Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig von Richthofen (1844-1915), an engineer in the German army, and Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852-1930).
While Else von Richthofen started her professional career as a teacher, she enrolled at Heidelberg University at a time when this was still very unusual for women; she was one of just four female students at the time. She earned a doctorate in economics in 1901 and started to work as a labour inspector in Karlsruhe.
She married another former student of Max Weber, Edgar Jaffé (1865-1921), in 1902 who was a well-known economist and entrepreneur. It was Jaffé who bought the journal Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik of which Max Weber became one of the editors. With Jaffé, she had two children, Marianne (born 1905) and Hans (born 1909).
Else became acquainted to intellectuals and authors, including the sociologists and economists Max Weber and Alfred Weber, the psychanalyst Otto Gross, the writer Fanny von Reventlow and others. She started an affair with Otto Gross with whom she had a third child, Peter (1907-ca. 1915). She also had an affair with her former professor Max Weber and his brother Alfred Weber with whom she later lived together in the same house for several years after her husband died.
There exists an Otto Gross Society.
Else also apparently had a son Peter in 1907, fathered by the psychologist Otto Gross. She and Edgar eventually separated, and she
supposedly was the mistress of the great sociologist Max Weber, eventually lived with his brother Alfred, and died at the age of 100
in the 1960s. [1, 2] |
| Occupation |
Social scientist |
| Residence |
Chateau-Salins, France |
| Residence |
Munich, Germany |
| Residence |
Heidelberg, Germany |
| Died |
22 Dec 1973 |
Heidelberg, Germany |
| Person ID |
I456 |
Blank Family |
| Last Modified |
20 Feb 2010 |
| Family |
Prof Edgar Jaffe, b. 14 May 1866, Hamburg, Germany , d. 29 Apr 1921, Munich, Germany (Age 54 years) |
| Married |
18 Nov 1902 |
Heidelberg, Germany |
| Children |
| | 1. Frederick Jeffrey, b. 28 Sep 1903, Heidelberg, Germany , d. 3 Aug 1995, Greenwich, CT, USA (Age 91 years) |
| | 2. Marianne Jaffe, b. 21 Aug 1905, Heidelberg, Germany , d. 23 Jan 1991 (Age 85 years) |
| | 3. Peter Jaffe, b. 24 Dec 1907, Heidelberg, Germany , d. 14 Oct 1915, Heidelberg, Germany (Age 7 years) |
| | 4. Hans Jaffe, b. 25 Feb 1909, Heidelberg, Germany , d. 8 Nov 1977, Cleveland, OH, USA (Age 68 years) |
|
| Last Modified |
19 Feb 2010 |
| Family ID |
F167 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Sources |
- [S78] Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.
- [S157] E-mail message, from David Friedrichs.
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