Margarete Susman Collection

Margarete Susman was born in Hamburg, Germany, on October 14, 1872, the third daughter of Adolph Susman and his wife Jenni (née Katzenstein). She grew up in Zürich, Switzerland. Since her father forbid her to study at the university in Zürich, she turned to writing, drawing and painting. She studied art in ateliers in Paris, Düsseldorf and Munich, where she encountered art historian Gertrud Kantorowicz, who would become a close friend. In 1901 Susman's first book of poetry was published, Mein Land. Gedichte.

In 1905 Margarete Susman married the painter Eduard von Bendemann and the couple moved to Berlin, in whose social circles she would meet individuals such as Georg Simmel and Martin Buber, Ernst Bloch, and Bernard Groetheysen, among many others. The following year they had a son, Erwin. She continued to write and publish books of her own poetry as well as on literature, such as Das Wesen der modernen deutschen Lyrik (1910), which brought her into contact with Stefan George. Susman also began to write essays for the Frankfurter Zeitung. In 1912 the family moved to Rüschlikon, Switzerland and soon after her first philosophical essay "Spinoza und das jüdische Weltgefühl" appeared in the compendium Vom Judentum, together with essays by Martin Buber and many others. Once World War I began, her husband returned to Germany to volunteer for military service and in 1915 Margarete and her son went to Frankfurt am Main. After the war the family resided in Frankfurt and later, Säckingen. She continued to write for the Frankfurter Zeitung, with many essays reflecting on philosophical or religious themes. In 1928 she and her husband divorced. In 1929 her book Die Frauen der Romantik was published.

In summer 1933 she left Germany, returning to Zürich in January 1934. Both her sister Paula and her close friend Gertrud Kantorowicz tried to immigrate to Switzerland, but were both captured at the border; Paula committed suicide and Kantorowicz died in Theresienstadt. Margarete Susman resided in Switzerland for the rest of her life and continued to write books and essays in spite of failing eyesight in her later years. Among these was her book Das Buch Hiob und das Schicksal des jüdischen Volkes, which was published in 1946 and was an attempt to deal with the events of the Holocaust. In 1951 her book on Goethe and Charlotte von Stein, Deutung einer großen Liebe came out. A book of essays, Vom Geheimnis der Freiheit was published in 1964, as did her published memoir Ich habe viele Leben gelebt. Margarete Susman died in Switzerland on January 16, 1966.