Zuckerkandl, Bertha, 1864-1945

Bertha (Berta) Zuckerkandl (née Szeps) was the widow of the anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl (1849-1910). Her sister Sofie was married to Paul Clemenceau, the brother of the French statesman Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929). Alma Mahler was acquainted with Zuckerkandl since her youth in Vienna, and they became close friends. In her memoir Mein Leben, Alma mentions Zuckerkandl several times and gives an excerpt from an article Zuckerkandl published about Franz Werfel in 1918. In 1938 Zuckerkandl emigrated to France, where she had contact with Alma and Franz, during the time they spent in Paris; as evidenced in her letters, Zuckerkandl emigrated to Algeria in 1939 or 1940 and remained there until almost the end of her life (in the fall of 1945 she traveled to Paris for medical treatment and died there several weeks later). Zuckerkandl lived in Algeria with her son, Fritz Zuckerkandl, a pharmaceutical chemist; and his wife, Gertrud ("Trude") Zuckerkandl-Stekel, who was an artist; and their son (Berta's grandson), Emil Zuckerkandl, who during that time served as a soldier, was also a published writer in French, and did translations from German to French.

From the description of Correspondence to Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, 1930-1945. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155864892