Doc. PhDr. Julie Moschelesová

(*21. 8. 1892 – Praha   † 7. 1. 1956 – Praha)

Julie Moscheles came from a wealthy Jewish family (her grandfather reportedly owned a cloth factory). However, her mother was blind and so she entrusted Julie to her uncle, Felix Moscheles, who was known as an English painter. It was with her uncle that Julie Moscheles travelled throughout Europe and North Africa in her youth. During her stay in Oslo, she began working at the Geological Institute there, where she began to research the geomorphology of the Scandinavian Peninsula. She received her doctorate from the University of Prague under F. Machatschek in 1916 and worked as an unpaid assistant at the German University in Prague from 1917 to 1922. Thanks to Václav Švamber, Julie Moschelesová transferred to the Czech University in 1923, where she received her habilitation in anthropogeography (now socio-economic geography) in 1934. However, she was mainly devoted to physical geography. After the occupation in 1939, Julie Moscheles was forced to leave the Czech Republic for racial reasons. She worked first in Melbourne, Australia, where she lectured at the Faculty of Commerce, and then, in 1942-44, in the service of the independent army of the Dutch East Indies. After the war, she returned to Czechoslovakia again, but found none of her relatives alive. It is said that she lived for a time in one of the attic rooms of the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Science in Albertov. It was only after four years that she was able to return to the Department of Geography, where she lectured on regional geography until she succumbed to terminal cancer. Julie Moscheles was exceptional in that she published in almost every branch of geography. She worked most extensively in physical geography and especially geomorphology and was better known abroad as a researcher. Her most important works include Wirtschaftsgeographie der Tschechoslowakischen Republik (1921), Wavy movements of large amplitude in southern Bohemia (1931), map of the British Isles in Stieler's Atlas (1935).

Sources:

MARTÍNEK, Jiří. Geographers in the Czech Lands 1800-1945: (biographical dictionary). Prague: Historical Institute, 2008, 245 p. ISBN 978-80-7286-133-0.

MARTÍNEK, Jiří and MARTÍNEK, Miloslav. Who was who. 1st ed. Prague: Libri, 1998, 509 p. ISBN 80-85983-50-8.

KETTNER, Radim. On the 60th birthday of Julia Moscheles. Proceedings of the Czechoslovak Geographical Society. 1953, vol. 1952, vol. 57, pp. 19-25.