author
Ernst Rosmer
1866–1949
Remembered for lyrical, idea-rich plays and stories, this Austrian-born German writer published under the male pen name Ernst Rosmer and became a notable stage voice around the turn of the 20th century. Her best-known work, The King’s Children (Königskinder), later reached a wide audience through Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera adaptation.
1 Audiobook
Madonna: Novellen
by Ernst Rosmer
About the author
Born in Vienna in 1866, Elsa Bernstein wrote under the pseudonym Ernst Rosmer. She was an Austrian-born German writer, dramatist, and literary figure whose work moved across fairy tale, symbolism, and modern drama, and she was widely performed around 1900.
Her most famous work is Königskinder (The King’s Children), first created as a dramatic fairy tale and later adapted into an opera with music by Engelbert Humperdinck. Writing as Ernst Rosmer helped her navigate a literary world that often treated women writers differently, and the name became closely associated with her dramatic work.
Bernstein’s life also touched some of the darkest history of the 20th century. She survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and later published a memoir about that experience. She died in 1949, leaving behind a body of work that links fin-de-siècle theater, literary modernism, and personal witness.