Alexander Moszkowski (15 January 1851 – 26 September 1934) was a German satirist, writer and philosopher of Polish-Jewish descent. He was the brother of the composer and pianist

Moritz Moszkowski Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 18544 March 1925) was a German composer, pianist, and teacher of Polish-Jewish descent.

. He was a friend of many celebrities in Berlin, among them the theoretical physicist

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, about whom he was the first to publish a book in the summer of 1920 and consequently popularize the

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

. In his autobiography he wrote: "At the beginning of the 20th century the question of the conceivability of other worlds with modified physics and mathematics will be highly employed."Palm, Goedart,
Alexander Moszkowski
'' Telepolis Magazin (2005)

Life

He was born on 15 January 1851 in Pilica, former Russian-Polish border. His parents emigrated the following year to Breslau where he grew up with his brother

Moritz Moritz is the German equivalent of the name Maurice. It may refer to: People Given name * Saint Maurice, also called Saint Moritz, the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century * Prince Moritz of Hesse (2007), the son of ...

, who later achieved fame as a pianist and composer. As a young man Alexander Moszkowski moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

where he met Julius Stettenheim, who noticed his qualities as a writer and hired him for his satirical magazine ''Berliner Wespen,''. in which he worked from 1877 until 1886. However, there being many differences between Stettenheim and him, he founded his own satirical magazine, the '' Lustige Blätter,'' which reached large print runs particularly in the

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

of the time. Moszkowski was from 1892 a member of the ''Gesellschaft der Freunde.'' He was a personality of the Berliner society, and with celebrities such as Albert Einstein, he was among the first writers to bring the Theory of Relativity to a wider audience. He died on 26 September 1934 in Berlin.

Works

In addition to his satirical works, the work of Moszkowski includes many popular

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

, philosophy and science-fiction books like his 1922 novel ''Die Inseln der Weisheit'' (''

The Islands of Wisdom ''Die Inseln der Weisheit'' (''The Islands of Wisdom'') is a 1922 novel by Alexander Moszkowski that features expeditions to various utopian and dystopian islands that embody various social-political ideas of European philosophy and extrapolates t ...

''), in which he prophetically described mobile telephones and

holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, i ...

and the acceleration of our present-day high-tech information society. Scharwenka - Notenquetscher

*''Marinirte Zeitgeschichte, Gesammelte Humoresken'' (1884) *''Anton Notenquetscher's Lustige Fahrten'' (1895) *''Das Buch der 1000 Wunder '' (1916) *''Sokrates der Idiot'' (1917) *''Der Sprung über den Schatten'' (1917) *''Die Ehe im Rückfall und andere Anzüglichkeiten'' (1918) *''Das Geheimnis der Sprache'' (1920) *''Die Welt von der Kehrseite'' (1920) *''Der Venuspark, Phantasien über Liebe und Philosophie'' (1920) *''Fröhlicher Jammer, Ein Vortrags-Brevier'' (1922) *''Das Panorama meines Lebens'' (1924)

References

Sources

*''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia. A List of contributors can be found there at the''

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

''section''.

External links

*
Moszkowski.de
Website in honor of Alexander Moszkowski
Einstein, the Searcher – His Work Explained From Dialogues With Einstein
at Readanybook.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Moszkowski, Alexander 1851 births 1934 deaths 19th-century Polish Jews German satirists German science fiction writers Philosophers of science Jewish philosophers 19th-century philosophers 19th-century German writers 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German novelists German male novelists 19th-century German male writers 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers German magazine founders