Bertha "Billie" Busch

Born: 6 March 1895 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Died: Unknown.

Bertha Busch was born on 6 March 1895 in Zurich, Switzerland. Little is known of her early life although she was once married and divorced. She was an active socialist who had known Crowley's old friend Frank Harris during his 1922 Berlin promotion of his book, My Life and Loves, was well connected, considered herself "purely a business woman," and had worked in German screen star Henry Bender's clubs.

Crowley first met Bertha Busch on 3 August 1931 and remarks in his diary:

"Met Bertha Busch (Billy) 6.3.95. Zurich 11.30 P.M. To be accurate, she picked me up in u.d.L. [unter den Linden] To be fair, I had stopped to look in a travelling agency window to give her a chance. The words used were not “Why do you look so sad, Bertie?” but “Where are you going for your next trip?” I had been in Adlon and Bristol, and was going to Konig for bacon and eggs"

On 6 August 1931 they slept together for the first time. On 29 August Crowley introduces "Billy" to Karl Germer and his wife Cora over dinner and it becomes an instant love-hate relationship between Karl and "Billie."

The two moved into a flat with money that was usually paid for by Karl and Cora Germer. But the Germers wrote to Crowley "The $15,000 I have given you, were spent not in real constructive work but in expensive cigars, cognac, cocktails, taxis, dinners, wives and sweethearts and anything that you desired at the moment, I am not trying to insult you but I think that you have a Me and God complex."

Crowley and Bertha remained together until March 1933.

Crowley & Bertha Busch

by Max Brüning (1931)