On September 8, 1920 Berlin's media mogul and the man behind some of the best-known German press titles (like the "Berliner Tageblatt", the "Deutsches Reichsblatt“, the „Berliner Morgenzeitung“, the „Berliner Volks-Zeitung“ - to name just a few), Rudolf Mosse, died on his estate in Schenkendorf near Königs Wusterhausen. He is said to have passed away in his coach on the way back to Schloss Schenkendorf after a straining hunt.
Mosse was one of the leading German business personalities of his time and one of the publishers of both the Kaiser- and the post-Kaiser eras. But while his career as a publisher and politician is well-known (the name survives in the legendary Mossehaus on the corner of Schützenstraße and Jerusalemer Straße in Berlin-Kreuzberg, once the headquarters of his empire), fewer people are aware of his social strain, or his and his wife’s, Emilie’s, charity work.
Together with Emilie (nee Löwenstein), Mosse - pacifist, liberal Jew, supporter of the democratic wing as well as an art collector (his resplendent palace stretching between Voßstraße and Leipziger Platz came to be known as "Mosseum") - donated great part of their fortune to social causes.
One of them was Mosse’sches Erziehungsanstalt für Knaben und Mädchen - large orphanage for boys and girls, later known as Mosse-Stift. Together with a renowned women’s rights advocate, Anna Plothow, Emilie Mosse established and supported an association with the purpose of supporting single working mothers - soon the number of shelters they opened had to be increased, such was the demand.
Meanwhile, Rudolf Mosse created a pension fund for his employees, who within the publishing empire could also count on company-supported health care and financial support in case of work-related disability.
Yet, despite huge impact on German and Berlin history (the press palace, Mossehaus, stands witness to that) as well as the Mosses' incredible generosity, the man, whose empire was crushed by the Nazis, became largely forgotten. The Nazis made sure the name of the influential Jewish entrepreneur vanished from the city-scape.
Take the 1920 Rudolf-Mosse-Straße in PrenzlauerBerg (now the site of the Jahn-Sportpark).
In 1935 the street in Prenzlauer Berg (in today’s borough of Pankow) was renamed by the Nazis to Sonnenburger Straße - the name of the street before 1920. Good news, though! To commemorate the Mosses nevertheless, on 13 July, 2025 a small remaining section of the old Rudolf-Mosse-Straße - now access-street to the currently renovated sport stadium - was re-named in honour of Emilie Mosse: it is now called Emilie-Mosse-Straße. This was possible thanks to an admirable private initiative of local Mosse-family fans from Verein “Mosse erinnern!”.
The original Mosse-Straße in Berlin-Wilmersdorf - the address of the Mosse-Stift (now home to, among others, Familienzentrum InSideOut and a family cafe “Emilie und Rudolf”) - named after Rudolf Mosse and renamed to Homburger Straße by the Nazis - carries its old name again, too: it is now Rudolf-Mosse-Straße.
While it is not possible to give justice to Rudolf’s and Emilie’s achievements in one short text, it is worth knowing that the Mosses were not only highly cultivated, deeply empathetic and ridiculously wealthy people (Rudolf Mosse was the Ruport Murdoch of German media of the time) - they were also a devoted couple, bound by great love and respect for each other. So much so that when their servant gave birth to an out-of-wedlock child whose father was most likely Rudolf Mosse, Emilie - who could not have children of her own - agreed to adopt the girl and thus allow her to become the heiress to their estate.
Emilie, who followed her husband and died in October 1924, and Rudolf Mosse are buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee.
And to finish off on a lighter note, a fun fact: in 1995 Schloss Schenkendorf, built for the Mosses in the 1890s and the place of death of Rudolf Mosse, was sold to a private investor.
His name?
Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco. Not that we are superstitious or fearful of blood-thirsty spectres, but before visiting what after the 2014 fire became a neglected estate, you might want to make sure to carry some garlic on you…
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Herzlichen Dank for this.
I knew the Haus, but not the man or his admirable wife.
Great story, Beate. You info readers who know Berlin about the Berlin they never knew...or might never know. Thank you.