Else von Richthofen

Else Freiin von Richthofen[1] (October 8, 1874 – December 22, 1973) was among the early female social scientists in Germany.

Her parents were Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig Freiherr von Richthofen (1844–1915), an engineer in the Imperial German Army, and Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852–1930).

She earned a doctorate in economics in 1901 and started to work as a labour inspector in Karlsruhe.

She married Edgar Jaffé (1865–1921), another former student of Max Weber, in 1902, and he was a well-known economist and entrepreneur.

It was Jaffé who bought the journal Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik of which Max Weber became one of the editors.

Elisabeth Freiin von Richthofen (1874–1973), distant relative of Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was one of the first German social scientists.