 Margarete Susman stands out as a distinct voice among the first generation of German women in philosophy in the 20th century. In her capacity as a philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist, she was a regular member of the circle of Georg Simmel, which included Martin Buber, Ernst Bloch, and Georg Lukacs, among others. Jewish thought and the question of the status and role of women in modern society are the two central foci of Susman’s critical interest. They guide her work, which examines the challenges modernity poses to culture and society as it tracks the profound and radical upheavals that define the times of Susman’s life: the Wilhelmine Empire, World War I, the social and political revolutions of Weimar Germany, the rise of the Nazis to power, the Shoah, and the emergence of the new world during the postwar period.