Christopher Jeffrey Collection

Correspondence (originals and transcriptions) of Edgar Jaffe and Else von Richthofen Jaffe, accompanied by an inventory of letters with annotations and comments by Guenther Roth.

Else von Richthofen/Jaffé and Marianne Weber corresponded for many years, as did Edgar Jaffé and his coeditor Max Weber on editorial matters and legal advice during and before the couple's separation. The first extant item in the present collection is the draft of a letter in which Else asked Marianne Weber and indirectly Max Weber for help in her personal and professional quandaries (spring of 1900).

The correspondence between Else and Edgar also covers the birth and early years of the four children, of whom Friedel and Hans had to emigrate after 1933 (Peter, Else's son from Otto Gross died in 1915, Marianne Jaffé/von Eckardt did not manage to emigrate, but survived.) The bulk of the Jeffrey collection deals with the correspondence between Else and her emigrated sons during and after the Nazi period.

Also included are photocopies from the diary of the sociologist Hans von Eckardt (1890-1957), which largely fills in the void left by the interruption of the transatlantic correspondence of Else Jaffé-von Richthofen und her two emigrated sons, Friedel Jaffé/Jeffrey and Hans Jaffé between 1942 and 1946.