Dagmar von Gersdorff
Autorenfoto zu Dagmar von Gersdorff

Dagmar von Gersdorff

Dagmar von Gersdorff, who holds a PhD in philosophy, studied German philology and art history at the Free University of Berlin. She lives in Berlin, where she works as a literary expert and biographer. She gained critical acclaim for her biographies on important literary and historical figures: Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Bettina and Achim von Arnim, Goethe's mother, Caroline von Günderrode, Prinz Wilhelm von Preußen and Elisa Radziwill, Caroline von Humboldt. Dagmar von Gersdorff is a member of the Writer’s Association and of International PEN.

Dagmar von Gersdorff, who holds a PhD in philosophy, studied German philology and art history at the Free University of Berlin. She lives in Berlin, where she works as a literary expert and biographer. She gained critical acclaim for her biographies on important literary and historical figures: Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Bettina and Achim von Arnim, Goethe's mother, Caroline von Günderrode, Prinz Wilhelm von Preußen and Elisa Radziwill, Caroline von Humboldt. Dagmar von Gersdorff is a member of the Writer’s Association and of International PEN.


PUBLICATIONS

Daughter-in-Law
Year of Publication: 2021
Dagmar von GersdorffYear of Publication: 2021
For her father-in-law, the poet and minister of state Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, she was indispensable: Ottilie von Goethe, née von Pogwisch, of Schleswig-Holstein nobility, was one of the most unconventional, fascinating and controversial women of her time.

Although her proudly aristocratic relatives did not approve of her marriage to August, Goethe’s illegitimate son,...
Julia Mann
Year of Publication: 2018
Dagmar von GersdorffYear of Publication: 2018

Her life began like a novel. She was born not in her parent’s home, indeed not in any house at all, but in the Brazilian rain forest. Julia da Silva-Bruhns (1851-1923) grew up on a sugar-cane plantation near Rio de Janiero. At the age of eighteen she married the consul Johann Thomas Heinrich Mann in Lübeck. In the Hanseatic town she was an elegant beauty with fascinating flair. She was a...