George Mosse estate to benefit UW-Madison programs

Famed historian George Mosse, who died Jan. 22, has named the College of Letters and Science as the major beneficiary of his estate.

Chancellor David Ward announced the bequest Sunday at a memorial service held for Mosse at the Memorial Union.

The inventory of Mosse’s estate is not complete and the bequest must be administered through a probate court, so the amount of the gift is not yet available. But UW Foundation officials said the bequest is expected to be one of the largest estate gifts ever received by the university. Local news reports say the amount could be $5 million or more.

Mosse, who died at age 80 after a brief illness, joined the UW–Madison faculty in the Department of History in 1955 and retired in 1988.

“George Mosse had an enduring commitment to education and to the UW–Madison, where he remained for some 33 years,” Ward said. “His international reputation brought honor and recognition to the university. His students are respected historians and teachers at distinguished universities around the world. Now, in addition to the rich intellectual legacy he left us all, he has created a philanthropic legacy that will benefit many future generations of students and faculty.”

Demonstrating Mosse’s enthusiasm for the thousands of students he taught, the gift will include funds to endow student scholarships and fellowships in modern Jewish history. The bequest allocates additional funds for the George L. Mosse Teaching Fellowship established by Mosse before his death. Mosse also requested that memorial gifts be directed to this fund.

Another portion of the gift is to be used to encourage UW–Madison studies in gay and lesbian history.

The remainder of the estate is designated to support a unique exchange program between the UW–Madison and Hebrew University in Israel, where Mosse taught for a semester each year beginning in the late 1960s. The program will create ongoing exchange opportunities for graduate students and junior faculty at the two institutions through fellowships and grants as well as other creative educational opportunities.

Ward said Mosse’s gift reflects the focus of his intellectual life. Mosse was instrumental in establishing the UW’s Jewish Studies program. The George Mosse Professorship in American Jewish History, originally funded anonymously by Mosse, provides support for an outstanding scholar in the field. Anthony Michaels in the Department of History is the inaugural recipient of the Mosse Professorship. The endowed faculty position also enhances the development of the UW–Madison’s Center for Jewish Studies in the College of Letters and Science.

Born in Berlin in 1918 to a wealthy and influential Jewish family, Mosse barely escaped Nazi persecution, fleeing first to England and in 1939, immigrating to the United States.

Mosse was revered by his students for his outstanding abilities as a teacher and respected internationally as a scholar. He earned renown for his expertise on European culture and the ideological roots of Hitler’s “final solution” and for his academic work on sexuality and concepts of masculinity.

After retirement from UW–Madison, he continued his academic work with teaching assignments at Cambridge and Cornell universities and also as the first scholar-in-residence at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.