Landau-Mühsam, Charlotte (born Mühsam)

Hebrew-Name
שרלוטה לנדאו
Biography
Charlotte Landau-Mühsam (née Mühsam) was born on 20.9.1881 in Lübeck and died in 1971 in Israel. She was the daughter of Siegfried Mühsam and Rosalie (née Cohn), and sister of Hans Mühsam, a doctor who chaired the Jüdischer Volksverein Berlin-Grenadierstr., which provided inexpensive housing for Jews from Eastern Europe. He was also the husband of Minna Adler, who headed the children's soup kitchen of the Jüdischer Frauenbund (JFB), which later became the Ahawah orphanage. Hans and Minna eventually immigrated together to Haifa in Palestine. Charlotte's other brother was the noted anarchist writer Erich Mühsam. Charlotte married the lawyer Leo Landau in 1908, and they had three children. From 1918, Charlotte chaired the City Association of Women Unions of Lübeck, where she was very involved with feminist issues. She also became a member of the German Democratic Party and served as a lay judge and a jurywoman. From 1923, she served as a board member of the JFB, where she gave strong expression to her Zionist world view. She helped to found a home for children with tuberculosis in Wyk/Föhr, where she also worked as a social worker and chaired the working committee of the home and cooperated with the B'nai B'rith Order, the Israelitischer Gemeindebund, or the Israel Community Organization, the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland, or Central Welfare Office of German Jews, and the Zionist Union. Charlotte travelled together with her husband to Palestine for the first time in 1925. There, they befriended the well-known artist Hermann Struck, who helped them to immigrate and settle in Haifa in 1933. Once in Palestine, Charlotte worked mainly as an artist. Her husband Leo founded Agudat Achim, an association to aid German immigrants. Charlotte did engage in some voluntary social work. She founded a self-help association for women called a union named Saad, a self-help-association for women. When the Ahawah orphanage moved to Palestine, she became a board member and helped a great deal to build and establish the home. Charlotte wrote her memoirs in two parts: the first in 1931 in Lübeck, and the second in 1951 in Haifa.
Mother
Rosalie Mühsam (born Cohn)
Father
Siegfried Mühsam
Siblings
Hans Mühsam, a doctor who chaired the 'Jüdischer Volksverein Berlin'; Erich Mühsam, noted anarchist writer.
Marriage/Children
Charlotte got married to the lawyer Leo Landau in 1908, they had three children
Age at Migration
38
Year of Migration
1933
Archival Materials
Leo-Baeck-Insitute; Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Stadtarchiv Lübeck; Erich-Mühsam-Society