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Biographical/Historical Information

Born in Prague on October 14, 1885, Kahler was a writer and essayist who taught literature at several German universities. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1933 and to the United States in 1938, where he continued his literary and scholarly activities. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, on June 28, 1970.

Austrian-born Antoinette von Kahler (1862-1951) wrote several children’s books in the early 20th century. At the beginning of Nazi rule in Germany, she and her son Erich escaped, arriving eventually in the United States, where they settled in Princeton, New Jersey, in proximity to their friends Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Erwin Panofsky, Hermann Broch, and other German intellectuals, who met at the “Kahler-Kreis” (Kahler-Circle) in the Kahlers’ home. Antoinette Kahler took up embroidery and designed silks with biblical themes and Jewish iconography.

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Citation

Erich Kahler with his mother Antoinette von Kahler, Leo Baeck Institute, F 23596.