Else Jerusalem

Else Jerusalem (November 23, 1876 – January 20, 1943) was an Austrian writer and feminist intellectual. Considered a "thought leader" of the period, she is known for her best-selling 1909 novel Der heilige Skarabäus, which was based on her research on prostitution in Vienna.

Early life and education

Else Jerusalem was born Else Kotányi in Vienna in 1876. Her parents, Henriette and Max Kotányi, were middle-class Jews of Hungarian origin; her father worked as a wine merchant.

Though she was denied a full university education, she studied philosophy as a guest student at the University of Vienna, becoming one of the first women to attend the school.

Writing

Jerusalem is best known as a writer and public intellectual. Her work centered on the then extremely controversial topic of female sexuality. Early writing on the subject included Venus am Kreuz (1899) and Komödie der Sinn (1902).

At the turn of the century, she became an influential feminist intellectual in Vienna, serving as a "thought leader" and criticizing such anti-feminist works as Otto Weininger's Geschlecht und Charakter ("Sex and Character"). She also wrote for such magazines as Maximilian Harden's Die Zukunft. Jerusalem is considered an important member of the fin-de-siècle bourgeois women's movement in Austria.

In her 1902 work Gebt uns die Wahrheit! ("Give Us the Truth!"), based on a speech she had given the previous year, she advocated for sex education to prepare young women for married life.

Jerusalem conducted independent research on prostitution in early 20th-century Vienna. In 1909, she published the 700-page book Der heilige Skarabäus ("The Sacred Scarab"), which became a best-seller. The novel was based on her own investigative research. Set in a Vienna brothel, its content was scandalous for the period.