A Viennese Prostitute

Josefine Mutzenbacher was born in Hernals, a suburb of Vienna, on February 20, 1852. She returned to her native city after a few years where she led a striking and much noticed existence as a prostitute of the most elegant variety until 1894. While suffering from illness, she wrote the story of her youth. She gave the manuscript to her doctor a few weeks before she underwent major surgery. This surgery resulted in her death. Her memoirs appear here as a rare document of emotional sincerity as a valuable and strange confession that deserves to be recognized for the cultural history it presents. This is an English translation of the seminal German work.