{{Infobox royalty | embed = | name = Elsa Bruckmann | title = Princess Cantacuzène of Romania | titletext = | more = | type = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | succession = | moretext = | reign = | reign-type = | coronation = | cor-type = | predecessor = | pre-type = | successor = | suc-type = | regent = | reg-type = | succession1 = | moretext1 = | reign1 = | reign-type1 = | coronation1 = | cor-type1 = | predecessor1 = | pre-type1 = | successor1 = | suc-type1 = | regent1 = | reg-type1 = | succession2 = | moretext2 = | reign2 = | reign-type2 = | coronation2 = | cor-type2 = | predecessor2 = | pre-type2 = | successor2 = | suc-type2 = | regent2 = | reg-type2 = | succession3 = | moretext3 = | reign3 = | reign-type3 = | coronation3 = | cor-type3 = | predecessor3 = | pre-type3 = | successor3 = | suc-type3 = | regent3 = | reg-type3 = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1865|02|23|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1946|06|07|1865|02|23|df=y}} | death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = | spouse = Hugo Bruckmann | spouse-type = Husband | consort = | issue = | issue-link = | issue-pipe = | issue-type = | full name = | era name = | era dates = | regnal name = | posthumous name= | temple name = | house = Cantacuzene | house-type = | father = | mother = | religion = | occupation = | signature_type = | signature = | module = }}

'''Elsa Bruckmann''' (23 February 1865 – 7 June 1946), born '''Princess Cantacuzène''' of Romania was the Munich publisher of Houston Stewart Chamberlain.<ref>Sherree O. Zalampas, ''Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture''</ref> She held the "Salon Bruckmann"<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/literatur/salon-bruckmann-die-unselige-freitagsgesellschaft/1660844.html|title = Die unselige Freitagsgesellschaft| newspaper=Der Tagesspiegel Online | date=10 January 2010 | last1=Hillgruber | first1=Katrin }}</ref> and made it her mission to introduce Adolf Hitler to leading industrialists.

==Biography==

She was born in Traundorf near Gmunden in Upper Austria. Her father was Prince Theodore Cantacuzène, a Royal Bavarian Ulan officer. They were descendants of an old Greek Byzantine princely dynasty. Her mother was Countess Caroline Deym von Střitež, from a Bohemian-Austrian noble family. She married Hugo Bruckmann, a Munich art book publisher in 1898.<ref name="Rathkolb"/>

Bruckmann and her husband financially supported International Modernism in art and design. In 1899 Houston Stewart Chamberlain read at Elsa Bruckmann's first salon in January 1899. Attendees at their salon included Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich Wölfflin, Rudolf Kassner, Hermann Graf Keyserling, Karl Wolfskehl, Ludwig Klages, Harry Graf Kessler, Alfred Schuler, Georg Simmel, Hjalmar Schacht and her nephew Norbert von Hellingrath.<ref name="Rathkolb"/>

During World War 1 and in the Weimar Republic Bruckmann and her husband allied themselves with the political radical right in Bavaria. Bruckmann's initial interest in Social Darwinism developed into xenophobic nationalism, paired with racist anti-Semitism. Elsa Bruckmann actively supported Nazism, after attending a speech by Hitler at the Circus Krone in 1921. Hitler first attended their salon on 23 December 1924.<ref name="Rathkolb"/> Bruckmann introduced Hitler to Paul Troost, who went on to become Hitler's first state architect.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Jugendstil Women and the Making of Modern Design |author1= Sabine Wieber |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=9781350088535 |pages=189}}</ref>

The Bruckmanns joined the Nazi Party in 1932, but this was back-dated to 1925 with honorary membership numbers 91 (Elsa) and 92 (Hugo).<ref name="Rathkolb">Oliver Rathkolb and John Heath (trans.) "Baldur von Schirach: Nazi Leader and Head of the Hitler Youth", 2022. Chapter 4. {{ISBN|9781399020961}}</ref><ref name="Carradice">{{cite book |last1=Carradice |first1=Phil |title=Hitler and his Women |date=31 May 2021 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-5267-7957-1 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UMrEAAAQBAJ |access-date=16 June 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also== * Alfred Schuler

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruckmann, Elsa}} Category:Romanian Nazi propagandists Category:Romanian princesses Category:1865 births Category:1946 deaths Category:German salon-holders Category:Nobility in the Nazi Party Category:Austrian Nazi propagandists Category:20th-century Austrian nobility Category:Women in Nazi Germany Category:Immigrants to the German Empire