Defiance

Ahlfeld-Heymann, Marianne 

7 February 1905, Cologne–26 June 2003, Haifa, Israel

née Marianne Heymann

Nickname: Janni

Education: School of Arts and Crafts in Cologne, State Bauhaus in Weimar

Wood sculptor, costume designer, set designer, mask carver, marionette maker

Marianne Ahlfeld-Heymann’s passion for working with wood is evident in her masks, hand puppets and carved toys. She also uses her talent to do social work, which is particularly close to her heart, and she creates over a hundred puppets for the puppeteer Jupp Herzog, who performs in hospitals and prisons. Ahlfeld-Heymann survived the war in hiding in France and emigrated to Haifa with her husband and children in 1949, where she devoted herself primarily to making wooden masks. 

Fig.: Marianne Ahlfeld-Heymann, Weimar or Cologne, ca. 1923-1933; Jewish Museum Berlin

Albers, Annie

12 June 1899, Berlin–9 May 1994, Orange, Conneticut

née Anneliese Else Frida Fleischmann

Education: State Bauhaus in Weimar

Textile artist, weaver, painter, graphic artist, art theorist, lecturer

Anni Albers’s abstract weavings led to her being considered the most influential textile artist of the twentieth century. Throughout her life she experimented with fabrics and other materials. After having fled to the United States, Albers became the first textile artist to have a solo exhibition at the MoMA in 1949. Commissioned by the Jewish Museum in New York, she created the Six Prayers wall tapestry in 1965. The work’s six panels memorialize the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust.  

Fig:: Anni Albers in her weaving studio at the Black Mountain College, Helen M. Post North Carolina, 1937; courtesy of the Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina

Aronsohn, Paula

27 November 1908, Hamburg–9 Oct 1998, Tel Aviv

née Paula Sealtiel 
Name after emigration: פאולה אהרונסון (Paula Aronsohn)

Education: State School of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, Otto Douglas-Hill ceramics workshops in Berlin, Burg Giebichenstein School of the Applied Arts in Halle 

Ceramicist, teacher 

Paula Aronsohn was born into a long-established Sephardic family in Hamburg. Her everyday ceramics were fundamentally influenced by the Bauhaus. After emigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine, she founded the “Kad va-Sefel”(“Jug and Mug”) workshop together with Eva Samuel, introducing plain and functional ceramic forms to the region. From 1960 to 1971 Paula Aronsohn taught ceramics at the secondary school of the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO).

Fig.: Cover of Häuslicher Ratgeber, vol. 47, issue 9, photo: Dr. Peter Weller, Berlin/Leipzig, 1932; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März 

Baer-Freyer, Käte

27 May 1885, Stettin (today: Szczecin)–29 July 1988, Kibbutz Kabri, Israel

née Käte Freyer 

Education: Grand Ducal–Saxon Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar 

Artisan, puppet maker, puppeteer, teacher

Käte Baer-Freyer became well-known in Germany for her biblical puppet shows. Her husband Albert Baer composed stories in rhyme, to which she made hand-sawed, movable wooden puppets. The couple emigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1933 along with the puppets and plays, which were translated into Hebrew and performed. 

Fig.: Käte Baer-Freyer, Germany, 1920s; Family collection, courtesy of Neta Dror 

Find out more about Käte Baer-Freyer’s puppets in our online feature on unusual objects in our permanent exhibition.

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Baer, Albert: Biblische Puppenspiele, with figurines by Käte Baer-Freyer, Berlin, 1924; Jewish Museum Berlin.

You can find more information about Käte Baer-Freyer’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German). 

Baruch, Franziska

21 November 1901, Hamburg–3 September 1989, Jerusalem

Education: Teaching institution of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin; private instruction in lettering with Else Marcks-Penzig

Typographer, calligrapher, graphic artist

Commissioned by the Reich Art Custodian during the Weimar Republic, Franziska Baruch designed symbols, medals, and rolls of honor for the German Reich. Baruch already began working with Hebrew scripts during her studies. Her typeface “Stam,” which she created in Germany, later became popular in Israel. Baruch emigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1933 and designed the logo still used today for the Ha’aretz newspaper. She was also involved in designing the insignia of the newly founded State of Israel, the cover of the Israeli passport used into the 1980s, and the emblem of the city of Jerusalem, as well as those of many other institutions.

Fig.: Franziska Baruch, photo: Alfred Bernheim Jerusalem, 1947; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Baruch, Franziska: Menu for the banquet on the occasion of the second annual meeting of the Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book, Berlin, 5. XII. 1926; Jewish Museum Berlin.

You can find more information about Franziska Baruch’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German). 

Batzdorff, Lotte

5 July 1894, Breslau (today: Wrocław)–7 August 1957, USA

née Charlotte Maria Ollendorff  

Singer, felt artist

On Lotte Batzdorff’s marriage certificate, her occupation is listed as “singer.” After fleeing to the United States with her husband and two sons, Lotte Batzdorff contributed to the family income doing piecework from home, making felt flowers and dolls. 

Fig.: Lotte Batzdorff, in front of the house, drawing, The Hawes House, Swanage, 1939; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Susanne and Alfred Batzdorff

Berli-Joel, Esther

2 May 1895, Hamburg–7 March 1972, Haifa, Israel

née Else Joel
Married name: Else Berlin
After aliyah: Esther Berlin  
After divorce: Esther Berlin-Joel
Also אסתר ברלי-יואל (Esther Berli-Joel, Esther Barli-Joel) 

Education: State Arts and Crafts School in Hamburg, Academy of Arts in Berlin

Commercial graphic artist, artist

Esther Berlin was a committed Zionist who moved with her family to British Mandate Palestine already in 1925. She specialized in graphic art. She is known for her woodcuts and lithographs, as well as her designs for posters, brochures, and logos for significant organizations such as the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Maritime Lloyd Company. Living and working in Haifa, Esther Berli-Joel designed the coats of arms for both Haifa and the city of Holon, which are still used today. 

Fig.: Esther Berli-Joel, unknown, 1920s; Berli family collection

Bloch, Alice

15 February 1913, Saarbrücken–26 July 2005, Zurich

Education: State School of Arts and Crafts in Saarbrücken, School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich

Gold- and silversmith

Bloch was a highly talented goldsmith and silversmith, who was denied the status of master craftswoman by the Nazis. She fled with her family to Switzerland, where her professional qualifications were not recognized. It was not until 1947 that Bloch was able to support herself through her craft. In 1949, she designed the interior of the synagogue in her hometown of Saarbrücken, which was one of the first synagogues reconstructed in Germany after the Shoah. Today, most of her ritual objects are found in Switzerland. 

Fig.: Alice Bloch, Havdalah set: Kiddush cup, Zurich, 1940; Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Basel / bequest Saly Mayer

Brodsky, Nina

13 June 1892, Kyiv–28 July 1979, Paris

née Nina Brodskaya
Нина Бродская 

Education: Painting and graphic arts with Hermann Struck in Berlin, other training programs in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Weimar

Graphic artist, set and costume designer, poet

After the Russian Revolution, Nina Brodsky fled with her family to Berlin. She worked there for the Russian émigré cabaret “The Blue Bird” where her exceptional talent for set and costume design became evident. She also worked as a commercial graphic artist for the Jewish press in Berlin as well as for other clients. Brodsky survived the war with relatives in Switzerland and she later moved to Paris.  

Fig.: Nina Brodsky, presumably Berlin, 1925–1935; Jewish Museum Switzerland, Basel

Bruck, Franziska

29 December 1866, Ratibor, Silesia–2 January 1942, Berlin, death by suicide

Floral artist, author, businesswoman, school founder

Franziska Bruck, the "flower poet," revolutionized the German craft of flower arrangement, elevating it to an art form. Influenced by the Japanese ikebana style, she incorporated minimalism, balance, and asymmetry into her work. She used flowers in their natural form rather than forcing them into shapes with wire. In 1912, she founded the School for Floral Decoration in Berlin-Charlottenburg, providing women with new training opportunities. Under the Nazis, Franziska Bruck – impoverished, without family, and facing imminent deportation – committed suicide. 

Fig.: Franziska Bruck in her school for floral art, photo: W. Talbot, Berlin, ca. 193–1932; Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin; W. Talbot

Stolperstein (stumbling stone) for Franziska Bruck on Jewish Places. 

School for Floral Arts by Franziska Bruck on Jewish Places. 

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Bruck, Franziska: Blumen und Ranken, Munich, 1925; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Bruck, Franziska: Blumenschmuck, Frankfurt (Oder), 1927; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Bud, Charlotte

26 March 1899, Berlin–1981, France

Education: State School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin

Illustrator, ceramicist, commercial graphic artist, painter  

Charlotte Bud’s works exhibit skilled craftsmanship in a wide variety of genres and contexts. She illustrated a book of Grimms’ fairy tales, designed a ceramic Hanukkah lamp, but she also designed posters and numerous smaller graphics. She moved to France after marrying the non-Jewish French artist Edmond Victor Jamois in 1934, and focused primarily on painting thereafter.  

Fig.: Poster design for the exhibition The Creative Woman, Charlotte Bud, Berlin, 1930; Jewish Museum Berlin

Cohen, Livia

17 October 1872, Berlin–13 November 1957, Berlin

née Livia Philippine Charlotte Cohen
Married name: Livia Kratz

Education: Teaching institution of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin

Art embroiderer, artisan

Livia Cohen studied from 1889 to 1891 and completed a degree in the subjects of art embroidery and ornamental drawing. An embroidered portfolio is one of very few of her works that have survived. Her marriage to the non-Jewish painter and graphic artist Alfred Kratz protected her from getting deported. The childless married couple continued to live in Berlin, on a low income, after the war. 

Fig.: Livia Cohen (née Kratz), Atelier Nordpol, presumably Berlin, ca. 1892-1905; Jewish Museum Berlin, donation by Klaus Siepert

You can find more information about Livia Cohen’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German). 

Cohen-Silberschmidt, Elsbeth

20 February 1921, Burgsteinfurt–10 January 1993, Naharija, Israel

née Elsbeth Cohen
Married name: Elsbeth Cohen-Silberschmidt (widowed)
Married name: Elsbeth Goldstein

Ceramics designer

Elsbeth Cohen-Silberschmidt did not learn ceramic painting until after she emigrated with her family to British Mandate Palestine in 1937. By 1950, she was working in the art ceramics department at Lapid Ceramics in Tel Aviv–Jaffa, founded in 1943, and had become its artistic director. Cohen-Silberschmidt designed the shapes of the objects as well as decorative surface patterns. Her modern ceramic designs were strongly influenced by West German and Scandinavian forms. Many of her affordable, well-designed everyday utensils and dinnerware sets became standard items in Israeli households.

Fig.: Elsbeth Cohen-Silberschmidt, photo: Rudi Weissenstein, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1953; The Photohouse

Dehmel, Ida

14 January 1870, Bingen on the Rhine–29 September 1942, Hamburg, death by suicide

née Ida Coblenz
Married name: Ida Auerbach
Married name: Ida Dehmel

Supporter of the arts, founder of artistic associations, women’s rights advocate, beadwork artist

Ida Dehmel was born into a conservative Jewish vintner family along the Rhine River. She loved modern reform dress and eye-catching jewelry. She supported female artists, was active in associations for women’s suffrage, and founded the GEDOK women artists’ association. Dehmel earned a livelihood through her workshop for beadwork in Hamburg-Blankenese and hired women to work there. As of 1933 and the ascent of the Nazi regime to power, her options were drastically restricted, and she committed suicide in 1942.

Fig.: Ida Dehmel, photo: Minya Diéz-Dührkoop, Hamburg, 1910; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Dessau-Goitein, Emma 

21 September 1877, Karlsruhe–1968, Perugia, Italy

née Emma Dessau

Education: Portrait class of the Ladies Academy for Art in Karlsruhe; Herkomer School of Art in Bushey, England, with Hubert von Herkomer

Painter, commercial graphic artist, Zionist

Emma Dessau-Goitein was an award-winning bookplate graphic artist. She was influenced by Zionism and the growing women’s movement, and almost half of her bookplates were made for women. She was the only woman to be accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1901–1902, where she and her husband lived. When fascist  race laws were introduced in Italy in 1938, the couple went into hiding and was supported by friends until liberation. After her husband died in 1949, Dessau-Goitein withdrew from public life and never resumed her artistic career.

Fig.:  Emma Dessau-Goitein, Karlsruhe, ca. 1893–1904; Gabriella Steindler-Moscati Collection

Dicker, Friedl

30 July 1898, Wien–9 October 1944, murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau

née Friederike Dicker
Married name: Friederike Dicker-Brandeis

Education: Institution for Graphic Education and Research in Vienna (photography and reproduction technology), Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (textile and ornamental form), student in Johannes Itten’s private art school in Vienna, State Bauhaus in Weimar

Painter, designer, interior designer, artisan, art teacher

Friedl Dicker was an extraordinary artist, as evidenced by her versatility. Her work included posters, sculptures, jewelry, costumes, and stage sets. Persecuted by the Nazis and deported in 1942, Dicker taught children in Theresienstadt based on Bauhaus educational methods and developed an early form of art therapy: using art as a moment of freedom.

Fig.: Friedl Dicker as a student at the State Bauhaus in Weimar, photo: Lily Hildebrandt, Weimar, ca. 1920-1925; Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

You can find more information about Friedl Dicker’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Dodo

10 February 1907, Berlin–22 December 1998, London

née Dörte Clara Wolff
Married name: Dörte Bürgner
Married name: Dörte Adler

Education: Reimann School in Berlin

Fashion designer, illustrator, painter

In her early career as a young fashion designer, Dörte Wolff designed costumes, including those for the cabaret performances of Margot Lion and the young Marlene Dietrich. However, she became famous with her colorful gouache paintings for the ULK satire magazine, where she portrayed Weimar high society and signed her work as “Dodo.” Dodo fled to England in 1936 and turned her attention primarily to painting. As a graphic artist, she was unable to replicate the success she had enjoyed in Germany.

Fig.: Dodo, presumably Berlin, ca. 1928; Dodo Estate, Athens; Fine Art Images / Bridgeman Images

Digital copy in the DGF Viewer (in German): Die Wunschkiste, foreword by Hilde Marx, texts by Setta Cohn-Richter, Carl David, Heinz Berggrün, Leonard Wischnitzer, Arhur Silbergleit, Alice Stein-Landesmann and others, illustrations by Dodo, Igna Beth, Lilli Szkolny and others, Berlin, 1936; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Edelstein, Grete 

23 November 1882, Danzig (today: Gdańsk)–29 November 1954, Tel Aviv

née Grete Schapira

Graphic artist

Only a few works by Grete Edelstein are known, including bookplates – such as for the pianist and composer Ernst Immerglück – and the cover illustration and title page design for Ilse Herlinger’s 1928 book Jüdische Märchen (Jewish Fairy Tales). Edelstein managed to emigrate to Tel Aviv along with her husband and son Hans (Chanan) in 1933. In memory of her son, who was killed in an Egyptian air raid in May 1948, she compiled a collection of texts and drawings, which were never published.  

Fig.: Grete Edelstein, bookplate for Dr. Berthold Edelstein, 1918; Jewish Museum Berlin

Eisner, Rose

12 April 1883, Myslowitz, Upper Silesia–15 October 1940, Berlin

née Rosa Eisner
Married name: Rosa Eisner-Marquart

Education: Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland), instruction with Bernhard Buttersack in Munich and J.P. Laurens at the Académie Julian in Paris

Graphic artist, illustrator, painter

Rose Eisner is best-known for her bookplates. She had a large client base, including clients from Silesia as well as Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, and Karlsruhe. The majority of her clients were Jewish. Although a graphic artist, she also painted portraits and landscapes. Her marriage to Otto Marquart, who was not Jewish, largely protected her from actions of the Nazis. Rose Eisner-Marquart died of cancer in Berlin’s Charité hospital.  

Fig.: Bookplate for Lucie Eisner, Rose Eisner, Berlin, 1931; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März

You can find more information about Rose Eisner’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German). 

Engel Hecker, Lotte

29 December 1888, Hamburg–presumably 1973, Israel

née Lea Charlotte Hecker
Married name: Charlotte Engel Hecker

Designer and maker of Jewish ritual objects, textile artist, businesswoman

Lotte Engel Hecker created metal ritual objects, including Passover Seder plates and Hanukkah lamps, but she also made textile objects for ritual use, such as challah covers. In early 1930 she took over her sister Erna Adler’s business in Berlin’s Tiergarten district, offering handicrafts, modern ceremonial objects, and gift articles for Jewish customers. After emigrating to British Mandate Palestine in 1938, Engel Hecker continued to specialize in ritual textiles in order to support her family. 

Fig.: Hanukkah lamp by Lotte Engel Hecker, Berlin, ca. 1933–1938; E. Ringelblum Collection, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw

Frank, Elly

11 December 1877, Stolp (today: Słupsk)–30 November 1941, Riga

Education: Drawing and Painting School of the Berlin Association of Women Artists

Commercial artist, portrait painter, illustrator

Elly Frank  illustrated numerous postcards with scenes of boys and girls at play which were printed by various publishers from 1905. Some of her images served propaganda purposes during the First World War. Frank also illustrated children’s books and worked as a portrait painter, and she was a member of the Business Association of Fine Artists in Berlin (WVbK). Her last residence in Berlin was in the Hansa district. Frank never married and did not have any children. She was deported to Riga on 27 November 1941 and executed in a mass shooting three days later in the Rumbula massacre.

Fig.: Postcard Enemy cavalry attack by Elly Frank, Berlin, ca. 1918; Jewish Museum Berlin

Digital copy in the DGF Viewer (in German): Frank, Elly: Was Peterle werden möchte (What little Peter wants to be), Berlin, ca. 1920; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Digital copy in the DGF Viewer (in German): Frank, Elly: Liebe Freunde aus der Tierwelt (Dear Friends from the Animal World), Berlin, 1930; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Freudenthal, Rosa 

19 July 1870, Gross-Strehlitz, Silesia–21 September 1951, Haifa, Israel

née Rosa Graetzer

Artisan, businesswoman, creator of the Freudenthal Arts and Crafts Workshop in Breslau (today Wrocław, Poland)

Starting in the early 1920s, Rosa Freudenthal held regular sale exhibitions in her Breslau apartment, offering Jewish ritual objects and work by Jewish artists. It was important to her that Jewish teaching materials be produced for German-speaking children, prompting her to commission several projects. These included a construction kit for a cardboard Sukkah by Erna Selten, a Yahrzeit calendar with an etching by Käthe Ephraim Markus , and a Hanukkah game by Dora Goldberg. Facing severe repressions by the Nazi regime, Freudenthal closed her business and fled to British Mandate Palestine in 1934. 

Fig.: Rosa Freudenthal, Haifa, 1938; courtesy of Rivka Sklan and Sara Frenkel, Jerusalem; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Oleg Kalashnikov

You can find more information about Rosa Freudenthal’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Friedländer, Elisabeth 

10 October 1903, Berlin–1984, Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland

Name after emigration: Elizabeth Friedlander

Education: College of Fine Arts, Berlin, with Emil Rudolf Weiß

Commercial graphic artist, calligrapher, designer

When invited by the Bauer Type Foundry in Frankfurt am Main to design a typeface, Elisabeth Friedländer became one of the first women in this professional field. Her extremely successful typeface was produced in 1938 and called “Friedländer.” The name was changed to “Elisabeth” once the Nazis came to power, since the last name of the designer was considered “too Jewish.” Friedländer first emigrated to Italy in 1936, and then to England, where she worked during the war forging German documents. After the war she became a freelance designer in Britain. From 1948 on, she designed patterned papers for book covers and illustrative motifs at Penguin books, as well as patterned papers for the Curwen Press.

Fig.: Elisabeth Friedländer, Kinsale, 1960s; Elizabeth Friedlander Collection, Special Collections & Archives, UCC Library, University College Cork, Irland

Friedlaender, Marguerite

11 October 1896, Écully near Lyon–24 February 1985, Guerneville, California

Married name: Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain

Education: State Bauhaus in Weimar, ceramic workshop at Bauhaus in Dornburg on the Saale

Ceramicist, porcelain designer, teacher

In 1926, Marguerite Friedlaender was the first female student from the Bauhaus to become a master potter. She then managed the ceramic workshop at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Arts and Crafts in Halle. Dismissed in 1933 because she was Jewish, she fled the Nazis, initially to the Netherlands and then in 1940 to California. At Pond Farm, in Guerneville, she spent decades teaching her craft – her approach marked by techniques and philosophies from the Bauhaus workshop in Dornburg – thereby influencing an entire generation of American ceramicists. 

Fig.: Marguerite Friedlaender (later Friedlaender-Wildenhain), photo: Hans Finsler, Germany, ca. 1928; Archive, Burg Giebichenstein School of Arts and Crafts in Halle

You can listen to an oral interview with Marguerite Friedlaender from 14 March 1981 on the website of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. A version translated into German is available on our website.

Friedlaender, Regina 

12 May 1866, Berlin–7 March 1932, Berlin

née Regina Oppler
Married name: Regina Friedlaender
Married name: Regina Heller

Modiste, fashion designer, businesswoman  

Regina Friedlaender’s flair for design and business acumen propelled her from her humble beginnings as a hat maker to become an influential fashion trendsetter and a successful entrepreneur. Her hat salon, showcasing her often dramatic designs and striking color choices, rapidly became one of the most famous in Berlin. She also sold dresses and furs. Friedlaender understood product placement and her exclusive hats could be seen in influential magazines such as Die Dame and Elegante Welt, and they adorned the heads of many actresses of her time.  

Fig.: Regina Friedlaender (left) and Anita Berber, presumably Berlin, 1920; ullstein bild

Grossmann, Hedwig 

11 November 1902, Berlin–31 May 1998, Giv’atajim, Israel

Married name: Hedwig Grossmann-Lehmann
Name after emigration: הדוויג גרוסמן-להמן

Ausbildung: Seminar for gardeners and youth leaders at the Pestalozzi-Fröbel house in Berlin, Academy for the Scientific Study of Judaism in Berlin, Technical University Berlin, Burg Giebichenstein School of Arts and Crafts in Halle

Ceramicist, sculptor, graphic artist, teacher, zionist

Hedwig Grossmann is considered one of the founders of Israeli ceramic art. A devoted Zionist, she immigrated to Jerusalem in the 1930s together with her non-Jewish partner, the sculptor Rudi Lehmann. Using raw materials from the Land of Israel was very important to Grossmann and she intentionally emphasized the local earth colors in her work. In 1959, the couple founded a municipal art school in Giv’atayim. Hedwig Grossmann-Lehmann worked there into the 1980s with people of all ages and backgrounds. 

Fig.: Hedwig Grossmann-Lehmann teaches in the artists’ village of En Hod, photo: Fritz Cohen, En Hod, 1956; Government Press Office Jerusalem / National, Photo Collection, Jerusalem

Guermonprez Jalowetz, Trude 

9 November 1910, Danzig (today: Gdańsk)–8 May 1976, San Francisco

née Gertrud Emilie Jalowetz

Education: Burg Giebichenstein School of Arts and Crafts in Halle, Technical Academy of Berlin, fellowships in Finland and Sweden  

Textile artist, graphic artist, teacher  

Trude Guermonprez survived the German occupation in the Netherlands and moved to the United States in 1946. An exceptionally talented weaver, she designed fabrics for textile producers, completed commissioned works for private individuals and architectural offices, and she designed ceremonial textiles for synagogues. She moved from North Carolina to California in 1949, where she worked with Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain to set up the Pond Farm Workshops. Guermonprez  taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts until 1971. 

Fig.: Trude Guermonprez, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, 1956; courtesy of Haystack, Mountain School of Crafts

Heymann-Loebenstein, Margarete

10 August 1899, Cologne–11 November 1990, London

née Margarete Heymann
Married name: Margarete Loebenstein (widowed)
Married name: Margarete Marks
Name after emigration: Margarete Heymann-Marks, Grete Marks, Margaret Marks

Education: School of Arts and Crafts in Cologne, Düsseldorf Art Academy, Johannes Itten’s preparatory course at the State Bauhaus in Weimar, trial semester at the ceramic workshop at Bauhaus in Dornburg/Saale

Ceramics designer, businesswoman, painter

Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein founded the Haël Workshops for Artistic Ceramics together with her husband and his brother. Their products were soon successful internationally. Her modern forms, abstract ornamentation, and unusual glazes appealed to contemporary tastes. After Gustav and Daniel Loebenstein died in a car accident in 1928, Heymann-Loebenstein continued to run the company on her own, until she had to close in 1933 due to the poor economic situation. A short time later, she was forced to sell the Haël Workshops under value due to pressure of the Nazi regime. Hedwig Bollhagen was made the artistic director and took over some of the product lines. Heymann-Loebenstein immigrated to Britain in 1936, but she was unable to rebuild her career there as a ceramics designer. 

Fig.: Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein, presumably Berlin, ca. 1925; Jewish Museum Berlin, donation by Frances Marks

Learn more about Margarete Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein on our website. 

Hirsch, Elli 

23 March 1873, Berlin–6 February 1943, murdered in Theresienstadt

née Aurelie Hirsch
Married name: Aurelie Doepler

Education: Teaching institution of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin

Illustrator, graphic artist, advertising artist

After completing her studies, Elli Hirsch designed vignettes and headers for the Kunstgewerbeblatt, an arts and crafts gazette, and quickly made a name for herself as a graphic artist. She was particularly successful during her eight-year tenure at the Stollwerck chocolate company in Cologne. Elli Hirsch designed more than a hundred collectible picture cards, as well as packaging, advertisements, and posters. She was also involved in designing the company logo. Her business relationship with the company, which was unusual for the time, ended when she married. Hirsch was deported from Berlin to Theresienstadt in 1942 and died there six months later. 

Fig.: Bookplate for Elli Hirsch, Emil Doepler the Younger, place unknown, 1905; Reproduction courtesy of University of Glasgow Library, Archives Special Collections

Elli Hirsch’s educational institution on Jewish Places.

Kuttner, Dorothea 

22 April 1902, Berlin–7 March 1967, Allgäu region

Married name: Dorothea Patuschka

Education: School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin

Artisan

Dorothea Kuttner grew up in humble circumstances and wanted to learn a trade. Already during her training, she wove fabrics that her family used to make their clothing. Kuttner later ran a sewing studio in Katowice and hired several employees. This is where she met her future non-Jewish husband. The couple settled in Kempten in the Allgäu region, but moved to Berlin in 1943 to escape the whims of the Nazi district leader in their small town.  Protected by her marriage, Kuttner survived the Nazi regime in Berlin. 

Fig.: Dorothea Kuttner, presumably Berlin, ca. 1920; private collection

Leon, Rose 

1 September 1909, Berlin–2 March 2010, Ardsley, New York

Married name: Rose Leon-Wegner  

Education: Reimann School in Berlin under Karl Heubler, metalwork department

Silversmith and metalsmith

Rose Leon, a silversmith, is the only person known to have designed and created Jewish ceremonial objects in the metalwork department at the Reimann School. She also produced decorative household objects and jewelry and her experimentation with unusual forms was striking. After 1933, Leon had few work or exhibition options, except within Jewish circles. She fled Germany in 1936. In 1937, she married her husband in Antwerp, and together, they emigrated to the United States in 1938. Leon-Wegener continued to create small, decorative silver items, primarily for family members, but did not further pursue her career.

Fig.: Rose Leon, Berlin, May 1929; Marian Natter Collection, Briarcliff Manor, USA

Levy, Elisabet Alexandra

31 August 1910, Hamburg–1990, New York

Married name: Elisabet Alexandra Weissmann 
Married name: Elisabet Alexandra Leonard

Elisabet Alexandra Levy, like several other Jewish women, created modern ceremonial objects made of metal in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Her considerable talent has been forgotten, and her works have been almost completely overlooked up to now. Little is known about Levy’s training, but she ran a business for jewelry and precious metals in Berlin. Together with her husband, she fled to Amsterdam in 1939, but she was nevertheless arrested and then deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. She survived and immigrated to New York with her son, Peter. 

Fig.: Hanukkah lamp (center) by Elisabet Alexandra Levy, Berlin, ca. 1933–1938; E. Ringelblum Collection, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw

Litten, Hanna 

17 May 1920, Berlin–December 1942, Riga

Education: Set and costume design with Heinz A. Cordell at the Jewish Cultural Association (Kulturbund) in Berlin

Costume designer, set designer

As a Jew, Hanna Litten was banned by the Nazi regime from working for public theaters. Consequently, her remarkable talent as a costume designer could only find expression at performances of the Jewish Cultural Association (Kulturbund). In 1939, when still only nineteen years old, Litten became a Kulturbund board member. The following year she assumed responsibility for the set and costume design of all productions until the theater was closed in 1941. On 26 October 1942 Litten was deported to the Riga ghetto and a short time later she was executed in a shooting in the Jungfernhof concentration camp. 

Fig.: Hanna Litten, Abraham Pisarek, Berlin, ca. 1939; image archive Pisarek / akg-images, Berlin

Luiko, Maria 

25 January 1904, Munich–25 November 1941, murdered in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania

née Marie Luise Kohn
Pseudonym: Maria Luiko

Education: Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Munich School of Arts and Crafts

Painter, illustrator, marionette maker, set designer, lithographer

The diversity of Maria Luiko’s oeuvre is impressive, including watercolors, oil paintings, lithographs, woodcuts, book illustrations, and stage sets. In 1927, she joined “Die Juryfreien” (The Juryless), an artists’ association, and her work increasingly addressed socially critical issues. Luiko worked for the Jewish Cultural Association (Kulturbund) until 1939 and was a founding member of the Munich Marionette Theater of Jewish Artists, for which she made marionettes. Maria Luiko had planned to emigrate to British Mandate Palestine, but she was deported to Lithuania in November 1941 and was executed in a shooting in Kaunas.   

Fig.: Maria Luiko; Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft / Hartmann-Center e.V.

Marbach, Johanna 

9 July 1872, Berlin–19 January 1945, Marylebone, UK

née Johanna Podeschwa (also Podescwa)
Married name: Johanna Dann (widowed)
Married name: Johanna Marbach

Fashion designer, fashion showroom owner

Johanna Marbach was one of Germany’s top fashion designers. She dressed icons of film, stage, and opera, thereby becoming a celebrity herself. An ambitious and successful businesswoman, Marbach was an early example of a woman in her time who combined a career with marriage and children. Marbach came from an Orthodox family and demonstrated her support for campaigns against antisemitism. Ultimately, she fled the Nazi regime and emigrated to London in 1939. In that year's census, she modestly described herself as a dressmaker. 

Fig.: Johanna Marbach in the garden of her fashion house, photo: Waldemar Titzenthaler, Berlin, 1915; ullstein bild

Meyerhof, Agnes 

2 June 1856, Hildesheim–22 August 1942, murdered in Theresienstadt 

née Agnes Gella Meyerhof

Education: Studied painting and sculpture in Frankfurt am Main, instruction with Hugo Steiner-Prag in Munich

Illustrator, portrait and landscape painter, sculptor, artist

Agnes Meyerhof created images for the Frankfurt Zoo, illustrated various publications and designed numerous bookplates. However, she became known primarily for her portrait painting. She made study tours to Florence and Rome in 1901 and 1902, and in 1906 she was awarded an honorary diploma at the Concours International des Arts de la Femme in Paris. Agnes Meyerhof never married or had children. At age 86, she was deported to Theresienstadt and died there three days later. 

Fig.: Self-portrait of Agnes Meyerhof in her studio; photo: Alexander Beck, Frankfurt am Main

Nathan, Steffie 

31 August 1895, Berlin–3 September 1972, Hastings, UK

née Stefanie Nathan
Married name: Steffie Schäfer-Nathan

Fashion designer, illustrator, commercial graphic artist

Steffie Nathan’s works represent the image of the “new,” independent, and active woman of the Weimar Republic. Nothing is known about Nathan’s education, yet by the age of twenty-four she designed a cover picture for Die Dame and also worked for other influential magazines. In 1926, she married the antifascist, non-Jewish caricaturist Albert Schäfer-Ast. Due to political pressure, the couple annulled their marriage in April 1939 and sent their daughter with a Kindertransport to England. Nathan followed her daughter and remained in London, even after the war. However, she was unable to restart her promising artistic career. 

Fig.: Steffie Nathan, ca. 1933; Collection of the Buck family, Worcester, UK

Neu, Trude

6 April 1912, Nuremberg–May 2001, England

née Gertrud Neu
Married name: Trude Neu Lindsey 

Education: Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, Belfast School of Art  

Textile and toy designer, painter, occupational therapist

Shortly before graduating, Trude Neu was forced by the Nazis to leave the Nuremberg academy. In 1939 she emigrated to Northern Ireland with a visa as a domestic servant. Neu was able to support herself using her creativity and skill by selling homemade hand puppets. She later designed bold and colorful fabrics for a Belfast weaving company. In 1948, Neu began a new vocational training program and worked until her retirement as an occupational therapist with a focus on arts and crafts, embroidery, and weaving. 

Fig.: Hand puppet “Pastor” by Trude Neu, Belfast, ca. 1941-1945; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März

Neumann, Alice 

23 November 1901, Berlin–15 June 2008, London

née Alice Irmgard Edler
also: Lissy Edler
Name after emigration: Alice Irmgard Newman

Education: School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Reimann School in Berlin  

Fashion illustrator

Alice Edler’s artistic talent was already apparent from an early age. As a young woman she worked as a freelance fashion illustrator for various Berlin salons and she created many of the popular Ullstein sewing patterns. After immigrating to London, Alice Neumann supported her family by drawing fashion illustrations. In the early 1940s, Alice stopped working as an artist to support her husband in the establishment of his medical practice. 

Fig.: Alice Neumann-Edler (Lissy Edler), Berlin, April 1922; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Peter H. Newman and Dr. Claus G. H. Newman

Oppler-Legband, Else 

21 February 1875, Nuremberg–7 December 1965, Überlingen on Lake Constance

née Else Oppler
Married name: Else Oppler-Legband

Education: Ladies’ Academy of the artist Maximilian Dasio in Munich, arts and crafts master course at the Bavarian arts and crafts museum in Nuremberg

Architect, interior designer, artisan, fashion designer, teacher for arts and crafts

Around 1900, Else Oppler-Legband was an influential and versatile designer. As a driving cultural authority she gave lectures, taught, curated exhibitions, and was the director of the Advanced College of Decorative Arts (Höhere Fachschule für Dekorationskunst). She fled Germany in 1933 and returned, already advanced in age, in 1952. Although once the leading representative of “reform clothing” – the alternative to uncomfortable, tight-fitting women’s fashions – today she is virtually forgotten. Her long-term, non-Jewish business and life partner Peter Behrens is widely known as a pioneer of modern design. 

Fig.: Else Oppler-Legband, photo: Minya Diéz-Dührkoop, Berlin, 1905–1920; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Dr. phil. Fortunatus Schnyder-Rubensohn

You can find more information about Else Oppler-Legband’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Pritzel, Lotte 

30 January 1887, Breslau (today Wrocław)–17 February 1952, Berlin

née Charlotte Pritzel
Married name: Charlotte Pagel

Education: School of Arts and Crafts in Munich

Doll maker, costume designer, artist

Lotte Pritzel created extravagant wax dolls that often appeared in magazines. In 1912, Hermann Bahlsen, a cookie manufacturer, commissioned her to design advertising figures.  Pritzel was part of Munich’s Bohème circle; among her friends were Erich Mühsam, Lion Feuchtwanger, Klabund, and Johannes Becher. After seeing an exhibition of Pritzel’s dolls in her Munich studio in September 1913, Rainer Maria Rilke was inspired to write about them.  Pritzel worked as a costume and set designer for the Munich Chamber Theater (Kammerspiele), the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and for Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator. 

Fig.: Lotte Pritzel with one of her dolls, Atelier Madame d’Ora, presumably Vienna, 1923; Estate of Madame d’Ora, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer: Das Puppenbuch (The Doll Book), with illustrations of dolls by Lotte Pritzel and Erna Pinner, Berlin, 1921; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Rosenblüth, Anni 

8 October 1890, Berlin–8 March 1966, Kidlington, Oxford, UK

née Anna Margarete Lesser
Name after emigration: Annie Margaret Ross

Education: Reimann School in Berlin, with the goldsmith Adolf von Mayrhofen in Munich, Royal School of Arts and Crafts Teaching and Testing Workshops in Stuttgart, Higher Technical School for the Textile and Clothing Industry in Berlin

Goldsmith, artisan, businesswoman, illustrator

Annie Rosenblüth was one of the first women in Germany to be officially recognized as a goldsmith and silversmith (i.e., by the Berlin Chamber of Commerce). She designed and illustrated a domino game for the Jewish National Fund that was introduced at the Zionist Congress in Vienna. In 1932, she did not follow her husband, politician Pinchas Rosen (formerly Felix Rosenblüth), to British Mandate Palestine. Instead, she emigrated to Britain with her two children in 1933. She later managed to support herself through her art. Under her “Fancycraft” label, she produced fretwork pieces in her Oxfordshire workshop that were exhibited in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain. 

Fig.: Annie Ross (formerly Rosenblüth), Kidlington, 1955; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Nick Ross, Jerry Ross and Judith Schott

Roth, Emmy 

12 May 1885, Hattingen–11 July 1942, Tel Aviv

née Emmy Urias
Married name: Emmy Baehr
Married name: Emmy Roth

Education: at the Conrad Anton Beumers silversmith company under Paul Beumers, as well as other goldsmith and silversmith workshops; one of the first women in Germany to obtain a master’s certificate

Goldsmith and silversmith

Emmy Roth was one of the most significant German silversmiths of the early twentieth century and was internationally renowned. She designed and produced functional objects of an elegant simplicity that were constructed with technical virtuosity. Roth knew how to publicize her products and periodically presented her work at the Leipzig trade fair. She participated in the groundbreaking Kult und Form (Ritual and Form) exhibition in Berlin in 1930, in the 1931 German building exhibition, and the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris at the “Israel in Palestine” pavilion of the British Mandate Palestine. Roth lived in Germany, France, and, finally, Tel Aviv. Suffering from cancer, she committed suicide in 1942. Her work was forgotten. 

Fig.: Emmy Roth at work, 1932; Scherl / Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo

In her article “Well-balanced silver utilitarian objects that make you feel good”, curator Michal S. Friedlander writes about Emmy Roth’s unique coffee and tea service. 

You can find more information about Emmy Roth’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German). 

Saltern, Irene 

30 January 1911, Berlin–4 September 2005, Newport Beach, California

née Irene Stern
Married name: Irene Salinger
Professional name: Irene Saltern 
Nickname: Reni

Education: Lette Verein in Berlin

Costume designer, fashion designer, businesswoman 

Irene Salinger is known for her influence on the women’s sportswear industry, particularly for her pioneering work in creating mix-and-match lines of sportswear separates. After immigrating to the United States in 1936, she pursued a career as a costume designer. She began working for Republic Pictures in Hollywood in the late 1930s and later worked for Samuel Goldwyn Pictures and other studios. In the 1940s, she began freelancing as a commercial fashion designer and, in 1950, became head designer at the sportswear company Tabak of California. During the 1960s, she worked for the Phil Rose and Lanz of California clothing companies, and briefly ran her own company, Irene Saltern of California.  

Fig.: Irene Saltern, Los Angeles, 1937; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Tom and Lynda Salinger

In his article “Caputh Stars. The Discovery of a Friendship” from 2023, Aubrey Pomerance, head of the JMB archive, writes about the friendship between Irene Saltern and Albert Einstein.

You can find more information about Irene Saltern’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Samuel, Edith

28 November 1907, Essen– 1 June 1964, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel

After aliyah: אדית סמואל (Edith Samuel)

Education: School of Trades and Applied Arts (later Folkwang School of Design) in Essen, Düsseldorf Art Academy

Sculptor, graphic artist, illustrator, doll maker

As a doll maker, Edith Samuel created custom-made fabric portrait dolls as mementos for families who sent their children to safety outside of Germany due to the Nazi restrictions and persecution. In 1939 she immigrated to British Mandate Palestine and settled in Rishon LeZion together with her sister Eva (Chava) Samuel, and her brother, the composer Yochanan Samuel. She started creating dolls representing various cultures and segments of society, as well as small scenes depicting the young State of Israel. Both in Germany and after emigration, Edith Samuel’s dolls reflect the life, cultural, and political history of her time. 

Fig.: Edith Samuel with one of her dolls on the balcony of her parents’ house, Essen, ca. 1930; Old Synagogue Essen, Archive

You can find more information about Edith Samuel’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Read our article to find out how curator Michal S. Friedlander rediscovered the Samuel sisters.

Samuel, Eva

16 November 1904, Essen–3 October 1989, Israel

After aliyah: חוה סמואל (Chava Samuel)

Education: School of Trades and Applied Arts (later Folkwang School of Design) in Essen, Worpswede artists’ colony, Margaretenhöhe ceramics workshop, studied ceramics chemistry in Stuttgart

Ceramicist, painter, sculptor, zionist

Eva Samuel, the daughter of a Reform rabbi, was a pioneering Israeli ceramicist and co-founder of the Ceramic Artists Association of Israel. She was renowned for her unique fusion of European ceramic forms with painted motifs taken from her observations of diverse communities in British Mandate Palestine, including Yemenite Jews and Arab populations. Together with Paula Aronsohn, she opened the “Kad va-Sefel” (“Jug and Mug”) workshop in Rishon LeZion in 1934, which then remained in continuous operation for 45 years. The doll maker Edith Samuel, who also immigrated to British Mandate Palestine, was her sister.   

Fig.: Eva Samuel; Old Synagogue Essen, Archive

Read our article to find out how curator Michal S. Friedlander rediscovered the Samuel sisters.

Sandler, Adele 

23 February 1883, Karlsruhe–2 September 1946, Jerusalem

née Adelheid Straus
Name after emigration: אדלה סנדלר (Adele Sandler)

Illustrator, publisher, businesswoman  

Adele Sandler promoted a Jewish children’s culture in Germany. Her illustrations for her picture book and educational games were highly praised. They offered Jewish children educational content and age-appropriate illustrations from a Jewish perspective, rather than a Christian one. During a time of increasing antisemitic persecution, Sandler’s work fostered Jewish identity in Jewish children. 

Fig.: Self-portrait of Adele Sandler, Berlin, ca. 1920–1934; Emanuel Bach Collection, Haifa / photo: Emanuel Bach

You can find more information about Adele Sandler’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Sandmann, Gertrude 

16 October 1893, Berlin–6 January 1981, Berlin

Education: Berlin Association of Women Artists, graphic arts studies with Otto Kopp in Munich, student of Käthe Kollwitz

Painter and graphic artist

Gertrude Sandmann worked in the 1920s as an illustrator for fashion magazines. Thanks to the inheritance she received from her father, she was able to embrace the spirit of optimism and discovery of the Weimar Republic in her own art studio. Travel and study trips took her to Paris, Florence, and Ascona. She fought for the emancipation of women all her life. Already in the early 1920s, she openly identified as a lesbian and created art depicting women with a passion. After receiving her deportation notice, she ensured her art was safe and feigned suicide. She survived persecution by going into hiding. Advanced in age, Sandmann supported women's projects and was a co-founder of L74, the first postwar lesbian group. 

Fig.: Gertrude Sandmann, photo: Eva Rülff-Kollwitz, Berlin, 1972

Memorial plaque at the former home of Gertrude Sandmann on Jewish Places. 

Schlopsnies, Franziska 

1 December 1884, Frankfurt am Main–30 December 1944, murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau 

née Franziska Spangenthal

Fashion illustrator, advertising artist  

Franziska Schlopsnies is regarded as one of the most significant German fashion illustrators of the 1920s. Her elegant fashion drawings and caricatures were featured regularly in magazines and she designed many covers, including ones for the satirical magazines Fliegende Blätter and Meggendorfer Blätter. After the Nazis took power, she rented rooms in her apartment in order to support herself and her daughter. Franziska Schlopsnies was murdered in Auschwitz in December 1944; her daughter Erica survived. 

Fig.:  Franziska Schlopsnies, Munich, 1942; private collection

Schwarz, Paula

11 February 1872, Rogowo, Posen (today: Poznań)–4 January 1943, murdered in Theresienstadt

née Pauline Schwarz
Married name: Pauline Löwenthal

Milliner, businesswoman

Paula Schwarz’s hat designs adorned the heads of famous actresses and her creations were captured by the Jewish photographer Yva, exemplifying the frequent interaction and mutual support between Jewish women in creative fields. Schwarz’s successful millinery shop in Charlottenburg was liquidated in 1939. She was 70 years old when she perished in Theresienstadt.    

Fig.: Hat made of black velvet with a white bird by Paula Schwarz; photo: Yva (Else Neuländer-Simon), Berlin, ca. 1925–1938; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Find more information about the work of Yva, photographer of the image, on our website.

Seidmann-Freud, Tom

17 November 1892, Vienna–7 February 1930, Berlin

née Martha Gertrud Freud

Education: Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, Teaching institute of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin

Illustrator, children’s book author, painter 

By the late 1920s, Tom Seidmann-Freud’s work was widespread throughout Germany and many parts of Europe. Hardly any other illustrator at the time achieved greater popularity with their books. Her husband, the author Jakob “Yankel” Seidmann, founded the Peregrin publishing house for children’s books. An encounter with the poet and translator Chaim Nahman Bialik led to an intensive collaboration and the founding of the Ophir publishing house. However, their projects ran into serious financial difficulties following the 1929 stock market crash. Within several months of each other, in 1929 and 1930, Yankel Seidmann and Tom Seidmann-Freud both committed suicide. 

Fig.: Tom Seidmann-Freud and her daughter Angela, probably Berlin, ca. 1929; Collection of Tom’s grandchildren

Residence of the Freud family on Jewish Places.

In the article “Artworks for children” (2021), Ulrike Sonnemann, former director of the library, writes about the purchase of several works by Tom Seidmann-Freud and their significance.

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Seidmann-Freud, Tom: Peregrin and the goldfish, Berlin u.a., 1929; Jüdisches Museum Berlin. 

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Eśer sihot li-yeladim (Kleine Märchen), mit Bildern von Tom Seidmann-Freud, Yerûshalayim [u.a.], 1923; Jüdisches Museum Berlin. 

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Seidmann-Freud, Tom: Das Zauberboot, Berlin, 1930; Jüdisches Museum Berlin. 

You can find more information about Tom Seidmann-Freud’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Sinasohn, Rahel Ruth

25 May 1891, Gnesen, Posen (today: Gniezno, Poznań)–10 February 1968, Petach Tikva, Israel

née Rahel Ruth Cohn
Name after aliyah: רחל רות סינאסון (Rahel Ruth Sinasohn)

Designer of Jewish ritual objects, businesswoman

Rahel Ruth Sinasohn was married to a neo-Orthodox rabbi and lived a traditional Jewish life in Berlin. To supplement the family income, she put her artistic abilities to use with great confidence and entrepreneurial skill. Her ritual objects made of textile, glass, porcelain, and metal reflected bold, fresh impulses and novel ideas. When the family of six moved into a larger apartment, Rahel Ruth Sinasohn commissioned the architect Harry Rosenthal to create an exhibition and sales space. Sinasohn fled with her husband and one of her daughters to Belgium in 1942 and went into hiding. In 1947, the family immigrated to British Mandate Palestine. 

Fig.: Rahel Ruth Sinasohn, Berlin, 1930s; private collection

You can find more information about Rahel Ruth Sinasohn’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Spanier, Käte

3 January 1891, Hannover–28 September 1970, Brent, London

née Käthe Henriette Fanny Spanier
Married name: Käthe Lehfehldt
Also: Käthe Lehfeldt and Kate Lefelt 

Graphic artist, illustrator 

Käte Spanier’s works were exhibited in 1914 at the World’s Fair for the Book Trade and Graphic Arts (BUGRA) in Leipzig, and included an advertising poster, designs for endpapers, and her original color drawings for the fairy tale The Swineherd by Hans Christian Andersen. Spanier’s Krieg und Küche (War and the Kitchen) poster is still known today. It was commissioned during the First World War by the NFD (National Women’s Service) and offers tips for running a thrifty household during wartime. Spanier married gynecologist Moritz Lehfeldt in 1918 and put her career on hold. After his death in 1935, however, and her subsequent emigration to England, she resumed her career and began exhibiting her work again. 

Fig.: Unfortunately, there is no portrait of Käte Spanier and a representative object image is not available online purposes.

Stern, Hanna E.

18 September 1885, Frankfurt am Main–4 December 1942, Frankfurt am Main

née Johanna Elisabeth Stern
Married name: Johanna Stern-Cristiani 

Commercial graphic artist 

Together with her non-Jewish husband, the artist Mateo Cristiani, Hanna Stern ran a studio for book art and applied arts in the Hansahaus in Frankfurt. During the First World War she managed the business on her own. Hanna Stern designed ex libris for numerous clients, including the Rothschild family in Frankfurt. She even created an ex libris in Arabic that has survived. Cristiani resisted pressure to divorce Stern and was banned from working as an artist or exhibiting his work in 1936. Hanna Stern spent some time in Switzerland, but she ultimately died of lung cancer in their apartment in Frankfurt. 

Fig.: Bookplate for Dr. Franz Adler by Hanna E. Stern, Frankfurt am Main, 1909; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März

You can find more information about Hanna E. Stern’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Straus, Paula

31 January 1894, Stuttgart–10 February 1943, murdered in Auschwitz

Education: Higher State School of Arts and Crafts and Technical College for the Precious Metals Industry in Schwäbisch Gmünd; I. Köhler gold and silversmith’s workshop in Frankfurt am Main; Royal School of Arts and Crafts Teaching and Testing Workshops in Stuttgart, master student with Paul Haustein

Goldsmith, silversmith, industrial designer, teacher

Paula Straus was one of the first women to work as an industrial designer in Germany. In the 1920s, she established herself as a goldsmith and silversmith in a male-dominated field. Straus not only produced individual luxury items but also designed serial silverware for well-known companies such as Peter Bruckmann & Sons and WMF (Württemberg Metalware Factory). At Bruckmann & Sons, she designed both Christian and Jewish ritual objects. Despite the intensifying anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi regime, she continued to work as a goldsmith. When her attempt to emigrate to the Netherlands failed, she took positions in Jewish homes for the elderly. In 1942, she and her mother were deported to Theresienstadt, but were later separated when Paula Straus was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where she was murdered.

Fig.: Passport photo of Paula Straus, photo: Clara Baur, Stuttgart, 1935; Jewish Museum Berlin, donated by Evelyn Grill-Storck in memory of Prof. Dr. Joachim Wolfgang Storck

You can find more information about Paula Straus’ works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Szalit, Rahel

2 July 1888, Telšiai/Telz, Lithuania–22 August 1942, murdered in Auschwitz

née Rahel Marcus
Married name: Rahel Szalit
Also: Rahel Szalit-Marcus 

Education: Munich Academy of Fine Arts  

Painter, illustrator, graphic artist

Rahel Szalit regarded herself as a Jewish artist and felt a close kinship with Eastern European Jews and the small villages in Lithuania where she spent her childhood. Her folkloric Jewish motifs, particularly in her illustrations of Yiddish literature, make use of grotesque images and exaggerated features, but they remain affectionate and humorous portraits by a community insider. Szalit spoke several languages and illustrated German translations of Russian, French, and English literature. In 1933, she fled the Nazis by going to Paris. She was arrested in 1942 and deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where she was then murdered. Her studio was plundered and ransacked, so that only very few of her works have survived.

Fig.: Rahel Szalit, presumably Paris, 1933 to 1942, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du judaïsme, Paris, Kinsale, 1960s; mahj

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Szalit, Rahel: Menshelakh un stsenes, Berlin, 1922; Jüdisches Museum Berlin.

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Dostoevskij, Fedor M.: Das Krokodil, mit 21 Lithografien von Rahel Szalit, Potsdam, 1921; Jüdisches Museum Berlin. 

You can find more information about Rahel Szalit’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Szkolny, Lilli

5 June 1906, Munich–18 August 1942, murdered in Riga

Married name: Lilli Wiener

Graphic artist, illustrator, photographer, author

Lilli Szkolny became known as an illustrator of Jewish children’s books and newssheets in the 1930s. In 1938 she illustrated the book Spatz macht sich by Meta Samson, but it was never sold after printing, as the Nazis liquidated the publishing house. Szkolny also worked as a journalist and photographer. She was unable to emigrate to England to be with her brother. In 1942, she and her husband, Franz Wiener, were deported to Riga, where they were murdered. 

Fig.: Lilli Szkolny, photo: Abraham Pisarek, Berlin, ca. 1935; Bildarchiv Pisarek / akg-images, Berlin

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Die Wunschkiste, foreword by Hilde Marx, texts by Setta Cohn-Richter, Carl David, Heinz Berggrün, Leonard Wischnitzer, Arhur Silbergleit, Alice Stein-Landesmann and others, illustrations by Dodo, Igna Beth, Lilli Szkolny and others, Berlin, 1936; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Digital copy in the DFG Viewer (in German): Samson, Meta: Spatz macht sich, with illustrations by Lilly Szkolny, Berlin, 1938; Jewish Museum Berlin.

Tomalin, Elisabeth

4 November 1912, Dresden–8 March 2012, London

née Elisabeth Wallach
Pseudonym: Suaja

Education: Reimann School in Berlin

Textile designer, graphic artist, art therapist, author

Elisabeth Tomalin fled to England via Paris in 1936, leaving her studies at Berlin’s Reimann School unfinished. During the Second World War, she worked for the Ministry of Information in London, designing propaganda and informational posters. She later headed the textile design department at Marks & Spencer until the late 1950s. Her interest in Jungian thought spurred Elisabeth Tomalin to retrain as an art therapist in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, she was invited to Germany to share her new art therapy methods, and reconciliation work with the first German postwar generation became her focus. 

Fig.: Elisabeth Tomalin, London, 1954; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The M&S Archive, Marks and Spencer plc

Trietsch, Emma

28 September 1876, Königsberg, East Prussia–22 April 1933, Berlin

née Emma Thomaschewsky  

Artisan, author, zionist, socialist, activist  

Emma Trietsch, a women’s rights advocate, offered free handicraft classes to unemployed women in Berlin. She hoped these classes would enable the women to earn a living and become financially independent. To support her family, Trietsch sold her own handicrafts to private customers, department stores, and textile companies. As a Zionist, Trietsch envisioned a future “model state” in the Land of Israel with better social conditions for women. However, she was unable to realize her dream and died in Berlin in 1933 after undergoing surgery.  

Fig.: Emma Trietsch, Photographic Studio A. Wertheim, Berlin, ca. 1890-1915; Jewish Museum Berlin

Turgel, Pia

20 April 1912, Berlin–24 January 1988, Berlin

née Sophia Turgel

Education: Reimann School in Berlin

Commercial graphic artist

Only a few of Pia Turgel’s works, papers, letters, and photographs have survived in her estate. One impressive piece is an illustrated autograph album from her time as a student at the Reimann School, filled with drawings and texts by her fellow students. She brought the album with her when she immigrated to England. New entries in various languages were added in London air raid shelters by people who happened to be there. Turgel returned to her hometown of Berlin after the war and lived together with her life partner, Anneliese Lichtenberger, from 1954. She became a member of Berlin’s Jewish community.

Fig.: Pia Turgel at the Reimann School, Berlin, 1932; Jewish Museum Berlin

You can find more information about Pia Turgel’s works in the digitized holdings of our collection (in German).

Westheim, Jenny

2 March 1894, Frankfurt am Main–3 June 1934, Frankfurt am Main

née Jenny Riwka Jentl Rosenbaum

Artisan, businesswoman, proprietor of J. Westheim Arts and Crafts

On March 12, 1925, the opening of an arts and crafts shop was announced in the Orthodox Jewish newspaper Der Israelit. Jenny Westheim owned this new business on Schwanenstrasse in Frankfurt am Main, where she specialized in producing and selling Jewish ritual objects and educational toys for children. Westheim died unexpectedly at the age of forty. Her obituary affectionately described her as “a living synthesis of education, grace, and artistic sensibility, which came together with simple, traditional piety and all the virtues for which the Jewish woman is praised.” 

Fig.: Advertisement for the Jenny Westheim arts and crafts store, from: Der Israelit, volume 69, issue 48, 29.11.1928, p. 16; German National Library Leipzig, shelfmark: ZC 4772

Wolff, Käte  

30 May 1882, Berlin–September 1968, New York

née Katarina Wolff
Name after emigration: Kate Wolff-Lalouve, Kate Lalouve
Pseudonym: Lalouve

Education: Teaching institute of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts Berlin

Illustrator, papercut artist, commercial graphic artist

Käte Wolff ran her own design studio in Berlin’s Schöneberg district and was known primarily for her extraordinary skill in making papercuts and was best known for her extraordinary papercutting skills and her ability to apply them in various contexts. Wolff had a large clientele and designed advertisements, company signs, ex libris, and illustrations for German fairy tales and other children’s books. Wolff fled Germany in 1933 and went to Paris, where she illustrated books for the Ernest Flammarion publishing house under the pseudonym Lalouve (The She-wolf) to conceal her identity. When the Germans occupied France, Wolff went into hiding with a bottle of poison, just in case, and survived. She left France in 1946 and immigrated to New York. 

Fig.: Käte Wolff, Berlin, before 1936; Wolff family