Else/Elsa Bernstein-Porges (born Else Porges

Porges

Porges is a surname which may refer to:* Gabriel Porges** Moses Porges, Moses Porges von Portheim , a Czech-Austrian industrialist, vice-burgomaster of Smichow...

, pseudonym: Ernst Rosmer; October 28, 1866, Wien

Wien

Wien is the German language name for Vienna, the city and federal state in Austria.* Wien , in Vienna, Austria* Theater an der Wien, a theater in Vienna located at the former river WienWien may also refer to:...

 - July 2, 1949, Hamburg-Eimsbüttel) was an Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

-German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 writer and dramatist of Jewish descent.

Life

Elsa Bernstein was a daughter of Heinrich Porges

Heinrich Porges

Heinrich Porges was a Czech-Austrian choirmaster, music critic and writer of Jewish descent.-Life:...

, the friend of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, and married Max Bernstein

Max Bernstein

Max Bernstein was a German art and theatre critic and author. He was the husband of Elsa Bernstein.- The Salon Bernstein :Bernstein and his wife Elsa had one of the most prominent salons during the millennium...

. She was educated at Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

; and, for a short time, on the stage. An affliction

Suffering

Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, is an individual's basic affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm. Suffering may be qualified as physical or mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and...

 of the eyes forced her to retire, and she thenceforth devoted herself to dramatic literature

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

. Shortly after her marriage in 1892 to Max Bernstein

Max Bernstein

Max Bernstein was a German art and theatre critic and author. He was the husband of Elsa Bernstein.- The Salon Bernstein :Bernstein and his wife Elsa had one of the most prominent salons during the millennium...

, she wrote her first play, "Wir Drei," which created considerable discussion. It was really a dramatized version of the matrimonial and sexual

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 views of Taine

Hippolyte Taine

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French critic and historian. He was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism, and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. Literary historicism as a critical movement has been said to originate...

 and Zola

Émile Zola

Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...

. Her next plays fell rather flat: "Dämmerung," 1893; "Die Mutter Maria," 1894; "Tedeum," 1896; "Themistokles," 1897; and "Daguy Peters." But unbounded admiration was elicited by "Die Königskinder

Königskinder

Königskinder is a stage work by Engelbert Humperdinck that exists in two versions: as a melodrama and as an opera or more precisely a Märchenoper...

," 1895—a dramatic fairy-tale. Though its plot was simple, the beauty of the theme

Theme (literature)

A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...

 and its poetry were such as to class it with Ludwig Fulda

Ludwig Fulda

thumb|200px|Ludwig FuldaLudwig Anton Salomon Fulda was a German writer and a poet with a strong social commitment.-Biography:...

's "Der Talisman."

Literary works

Under the pseudonym "Ernst Rosmer":

• Dämmerung (Schauspiel, 1893)
• Wir Drei (Drama 1893)
• Madonna (Novellen 1894)
• Königskinder
  Königskinder
  Königskinder is a stage work by Engelbert Humperdinck that exists in two versions: as a melodrama and as an opera or more precisely a Märchenoper...
  
  (Märchendrama 1895; 1895 von Engelbert Humperdinck
  Engelbert Humperdinck
  Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
  
   vertont)
• Tedeum (Komödie 1896)
• Themistokles (Tragödie 1897)
• Mutter Maria. Totengedicht in fünf Wandlungen (1900)
• Merete (1902)
• Dagny (drama) (Drama 1904)
• Johannes Herkner (Schauspiel 1904)

As "Elsa Bernstein":

• Nausikaa (Tragödie 1906)
• Maria Arndt (Schauspiel 1908)
• Achill (Tragödie 1910)
• Das Leben als Drama. Erinnerungen an Theresienstadt (Tagebuch aus dem KZ, posthum 1999)