Elsa Mosler (née Wunderlich)

Elsa Wunderlich was born on November 12, 1880, in Berlin, the youngest child of merchant Max (Meyer) Wunderlich (1844–1893) and his wife Dorothea (Doris) Wunderlich, née Daniel, (1853–before 1888). Her eldest brother, Siegfried Fritz, was born in Berlin on February 20, 1878. Her second brother, Ernst Arthur Wunderlich, was also born in Berlin on March 20, 1879. After the death of Dorothea Wunderlich, Max Wunderlich married Flora Kronfeldt, who had been born on March 13, 1858, in Dramburg (Drawsko Pomorskie), in 1888. On November 14 of the same year, Elsa's half-brother Hans Kurt Wunderlich was born in Berlin. Max Wunderlich died a few years later on March 21, 1893, in Berlin.

On May 7, 1904 in Berlin, Elsa Wunderlich married Hugo Mosler, a merchant from Hultschin (Hlučín) in the district of Ratibor. He was born there on September 28, 1870, the son of Gottlieb Mosler and Amalie (Malchen) Singer.

Elsa and Hugo Mosler lived in Berlin at Motzstraße 49 and later at Bamberger Straße 26, where their son Gerhard Dieter was born on October 10, 1910. Around 1920, the family lived at Köpenicker Straße 30a. At that time, Hugo was the owner of a steam laundry. Elsa and Hugo Mosler divorced in 1925. Elsa continued to live at Köpenicker Straße 30a until around 1932, when she moved to Ansbacher Straße 37.

Elsa Mosler was persecuted as Jewish in Nazi Germany. She was deported from Berlin to the Litzmannstadt concentration camp on October 18, 1941. From there, she was deported to the Kulmhof extermination camp on May 8, 1942, and murdered.

Hugo Mosler died in Bernau bei Berlin in 1939. He was also persecuted as Jewish. The circumstances of his death are as yet unclear. According to his death certificate, he died in the mental hospital at Horst-Wessel-Str. (now Breitscheidstraße) 61 in Bernau. This was the location of the sanatorium run by Dr. Alois/Aloys Wieners. Hugo Mosler was presumably a victim of Nazi “euthanasia.”

Gerhard Dieter Mosler was able to escape to the United States via Lisbon in 1941 and thus survived the Shoah. In 1941 in Baltimore, he married Ingeborg Jacobsberg, who had been born in Hamburg in 1912 and had escaped from Germany in 1939. In the United States, he changed his first name to Gerald. He served for the US in World War II from February 1944 and was awarded several medals in 1946 before being discharged from the US Army at the rank of corporal. It is unclear whether Gerald and Ingeborg Mosler had children. Gerald D. Mosler died on November 7, 1968, and is buried at the National Memorial Park cemetery in Falls Church, Virginia. His widow Ingeborg passed away on April 15, 1993.

Siegfried Fritz Wunderlich was a composer and married Martha Ida Lätsch, born on May 24, 1888, in Niederrengersdorf, in Berlin in 1914. The marriage ended in divorce in 1939 and, as far as is known, the couple had no children. Siegfried Fritz Wunderlich was deported from Berlin to the Auschwitz extermination camp on December 14, 1942, and murdered.

Ernst Arthur Wunderlich became a graduate engineer and married Rosa (Resi) Salinger, who had been born on April 6, 1880, in Lyck (now Ełk, Poland), in Berlin in 1919. As far as is known, the couple had no children. They lived in Berlin at Witzlebenstraße 1 until 1939. On January 13, 1942, Ernst and Resi Wunderlich were deported from Berlin to the Riga ghetto. They were murdered at an unknown date.

Hans Kurt Wunderlich was a lawyer and was first married to Margarethe Fleischer (1888–?) from 1920 to 1923. His second wife was Dolly Sonia Renata Fass, born on September 26, 1894, in Neuwied. Hans and Dolly Wunderlich were deported from Berlin via the Trawniki concentration camp to Piaski on March 28, 1942. Dolly Wunderlich was murdered there on September 26, 1942. Hans Wunderlich was also murdered, the place and date of his death are still unknown.

The marks of provenance and objects connected to Elsa Mosler née Wunderlich are listed here in the co-operative provenance database Looted Cultural Assets.

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