Background
Bertha Szeps was the daughter of Galician Jewish liberal newspaper publisher Moritz Szeps and was raised in Vienna.
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Bertha Szeps was the daughter of Galician Jewish liberal newspaper publisher Moritz Szeps and was raised in Vienna.
From end of the 19th century until 1938, she led an important literary salon in Vienna, originally from a villa in Döbling, later in the Oppolzergasse near the Burgtheater. Many famous Viennese artists and personalities including Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Max Reinhardt, Arthur Schnitzler and others frequented the salon. Protégés of the salon include Anton Kolig and Sebastian Isepp of the Nötsch Circle.
Her sister Sophie (1862–1937) was married to Paul Clemenceau, the brother of the French President Georges Clemenceau, and, therefore, she also had good ties to Parisian artistic circles.
She translated a number of plays from French to German and was a cofounder of the Salzburg Music Festival. In 1938, she emigrated to Paris and later to Algiers.
She returned in 1945 to Paris and died there the same year. She is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.