Salomon Hermann Mosenthal was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Most of his family settled in South Africa, where they played a major role in the 19th century development of their country’s commerce. Salomon Hermann, however, moved to Vienna, where he became a well-known dramatist. He started by writing poems Gedichte (1845), but later turned to the theater and wrote a dozen melodramas. Mosenthal also wrote libretti for compositions by Flotow, Goldmark, and the libretto for Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor.
Mosenthal’s most famous play Deborah (“Deborah”, or, “The Jewish Maiden’s Wrong” (1850), which in its English version came on stage as Leah, the Forsaken, was twice made into movies (1908, 1912). Deborah, a passionate Jewess, loves Joseph, the minister’s son, but renounces her love for the sake of Joseph’s happiness. The highly charged scenes reflect social criticism aiming to achieve greater tolerance. Mosenthal’s Bilder aus dem Juedischen Familienleben (1878) is a volume containing stories of characteristic Jewish life. He also wrote Die Sklaven (1847), Caecilie von Albano (1851), and Die Sirene. His collected works were published posthumously in 1878. Salomon Hermann Mosenthal was ennobled as Ritter von Mosenthal in 1871.