Bess Brenck Kalischer

Bess Brenck Kalischer (1878–1933) was born Betty (possibly Elizabeth) Levy in Rostock, Germany. Though she published her first poems in 1905, she began to make a name for herself as part of the second generation of German expressionists in Dresden, cofounding the Expressionistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dresden (Expressionist Working Group of Dresden) alongside Conrad Felixmüller (whose woodcut portrait remains the only visual record of her). Later relocating to Berlin, she was a friend and colleague of Salomo Friedlaender/Mynona, who used her as a model in several stories and three novels. She died of a “nervous disease” in 1933, her grave left without a headstone until 2014.