The Story of the Šosberger Family / Diaries of Migration: Notes on Novi Sad Families

‘The Story of the Šosberger Family’ panel will be held at ‘Prometej’ Gallery on 16 February, at 6 p.m. The Šosberger family is one out of the four Novi Sad’s families which will be represented through the exhibition ‘Diaries of Migration: Notes on Novi Sad Families’, which is being realized within the Migrations programme arch.

The Šosberger family is of Jewish origin and is the oldest according to the time of their arrival in Novi Sad, where its members have lived for almost three centuries. The family came at the end of the 18th century from Moravia to the, then, border town in the south of the Austrian Empire. Its first member to be born here, of whom there is written record, was the merchant Abraham Šosberger (1779 – 1849).

During the accompanying program dedicated to this family, most of the time will be allocated to Dr Aleksandar Šosberger (1873 – 1944), a doctor and the first manager of the City Hospital. He attended school in Novi Sad (primary school and grammar school) and Budapest, where he finished medicine (1894). He trained for several years, then returned to his hometown and for eight years he was a social security doctor, then a doctor for the railway and postal officials and a court doctor, and afterwards, he was appointed manager of the City Hospital.

He was the first gynaecologist-obstetrician specialist in Vojvodina. After the First World War, he had a private sanatorium in Novi Sad (today, Jevrejska Street 11). During the Second World War, he spent some time in forced labour. He was an important figure in the medical life of old Novi Sad.

There will also be talks about Dr Georg (Geršon) Šosberger (1836-1888), a famous doctor who treated poor patients for free, then Vera Šosberger (1927-1972), a pianist, who also performed with the famous conductor Zubin Mehta, as well as Pavle Šosberger (1920 – 2012), a distinguished cultural ambassador.