Daughter of Money

Mentona was not a love child. Her father, the Swiss watchmaker Heinrich Moser, died when she was four days old. And so, the ailing Mentona was subjected to the cold regime of her domineering mother, who was also one of the richest women in Europe at the turn of the last century. But was her secluded childhood in a castle the necessary prelude to her later life? Moser studied, leaving for England at the age of 17 where she found her vocation. She campaigned for impoverished working-class families, became a founding member of the Swiss Communist Party and befriended Clara Zetkin. In 1930s Berlin, she produced proletarian records with Hans Eisler, then founded an orphanage near Moscow and fought as a secret agent against the rise of the National Socialists. From Stalin to Lenin to Hitler, Moser lived through an era of violence and illusions, in which she always found new ways to fight for a more just world.

In a prose that draws in the reader immediately, Eveline Hasler traces the eventful life and work of this unique woman. Now Mentona Moser is finally guaranteed a place in the collective memory of Europe.

»Do you dream of a Prince Charming?«

»No, I dream of a fairer world.« Mentona Moser