Berta Fanta

Berta Fanta (née Sohr; May 19, 1865 – December 18, 1918), was a literary and intellectual figure from Prague. She was at the centre of the Prague intelligentsia with a "salon" meeting at her house.

Life Berta was born in 1865 to a well-off Jewish family in the small town of Libochovice (Libochowitz). In the two decades before World War I, many prominent individuals attended Fanta's salon, including theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels, writers Franz Kafka and Max Brod, anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, and philosopher Hugo Bergmann (who became Berta's son-in-law; he was the husband of Berta's daughter Else).

The gatherings ceased around the beginning of World War I, when Fanta's son-in-law Hugo Bergmann was conscripted into the army.

Berta herself lectured on literary topics such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and she also went to university lectures and concerts on a regular basis along with her sister, Ida Freund (with whom Berta also traveled).

Death and legacy Fanta did not routinely publish her literary works. Although a small number of her poems and her diary were published. Desiring to be with her son-in-law Hugo, Berta decided to emigrate to Palestine. However, she died before she was able to emigrate.