Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was born in 1836 in what was then Lemberg, Austrian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine). His parents were Leopold Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Sacher, a policeman, and Charlotte Josepha von Masoch, a noblewoman. The wife's family was dying out, so their last names were combined. So, (von) Sacher-Masoch.

Sacher-Masoch was a so-called "man of letters", a writer who penned numerous books, an utopian thinker whose socialist ideas were on par with the times. We're willing to bet that you have never heard of anything he wrote... but we will speak of two.

The first is "Jewish Stories", written in 1878. (It actually had a sequel... "New Jewish Stories".) Surprise! Sacher-Masoch wasn't Jewish! He also wrote "Polish Stories", "Galician Stories", and other ethnic... stories.

The second is "Venus in Furs", which is the main source of Sacher-Masoch's fame. It drew inspiration from an affair with a woman named Fanny Pistor, and is considered the origin of the word... masochism.

Yes, masochism! Taken from Sacher-Masoch's name! No, he wasn't exactly a fan of this development.

This got us thinking about his mother's family's desire to keep its legacy. No, not exactly the way they intended to maintain it, that's for sure...