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Else Freiin von Richthofen[1] (October 8, 1874 – December 22, 1973) was among the early female social scientists in Germany.
Elisabeth Helene Amalie Sophie Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen (also known as Else Jaffé) was born into the Heinersdorf line oftheGerman:Richthofen noble house atChâteau-Salins (France). Her parents were Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig Freiherr von Richthofen (1844–1915), an engineer in theImperial German Army, and Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852–1930). Her younger sister was the author and translatorFrieda Lawrence.
While Else von Richthofen started her professional career as a teacher, she enrolled atHeidelberg University at a time when this was still very unusual for women; she was one of just four female students at the time. She earned a doctorate in economics in 1901 and started to work as a labour inspector inKarlsruhe.
She marriedEdgar Jaffé (1865–1921), another former student ofMax Weber, in 1902, and he was a well-known economist and entrepreneur. It was Jaffé who bought the journalArchiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik of which Max Weber became one of the editors. With Jaffé, she had three children, Friedel (born 1903), Marianne (born 1905) and Hans (born 1909).
Else became acquainted to intellectuals and authors, including the sociologists and economists Max Weber andAlfred Weber, thepsychoanalystOtto Gross, the writerFanny zu Reventlow and others. She started an affair with Otto Gross with whom she had a fourth child, Peter (1907–ca. 1915). She also had affairs with her former professor Max Weber and his brotherAlfred Weber, with whom she lived together in the same house for several years after her husband died.
