Biographical/Historical Information
Charlotte Cramer Sachs was born in Berlin on September 27, 1907. Her father, Hans Siegfried Cramer, worked as a businessman for a successful grain import and export company whose innovative enterprises included the import of soy beans from Eastern Europe. In 1903, Hans married Gertrud Bruck, one of the first women to attain her Abitur, somewhat similar to an American high school diploma, at age eighteen. Bruck's formal education ended there, as her wish to attend university was thwarted by her father Adalbert, a judge who insisted that she remain at home. The couple settled in Berlin and had two children—Frederick H., born March 2, 1906, and Charlotte. From 1913 to 1924 the Cramers lived in the Berlin Dahlem suburb occupying "Haus Cramer," a villa built in 1912 to their specifications by German architect Hermann Muthesius. On September 12, 1924, Charlotte married Donald Samuels, a top executive of the Manhattan Shirt Company and moved to New York from England where their daughter Eleanor was born on June 11, 1926. Several years later, the couple divorced. Mother and daughter lived together in London for a few years before moving back to New York around 1936. Charlotte's parents relocated to New York at the same time, after a brief stay in London following their flight from Berlin after Hitler's rise to power. In August 1945, Charlotte Cramer married Alexander Sachs, a leading economist who had introduced Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and acted as advisor to the President.
Sachs received her first patent in 1940 for a “Combined Key and Flashlight” (US patent 2,208,498) to make unlocking locks in the dark easier. In this same year, she took courses at the New York Institute of Dietetics. She learned about nutrition, food preparation, and cooking. A few years later, she developed Joy Products, a successful line of instant food products. Sachs chose the name Joy Products because she said the mixes were a “joy” to create. She developed mixes for muffins, frostings, puddings, and breads. The mixes became very popular during World War II because women were spending less time at home and had less time to cook and bake from scratch. Joy Products remained in business for over 20 years. Sachs invented many other things, including two music games, “Domi-Notes” and “Musicards.” She also loved animals and invented several pet accessories in the early 1950s, including the “Watch-Dog,” a dog collar with a watch on it, and “Guidog,” an early version of a retractable dog leash. She continued inventing and creating new products until she died on March 11, 2004, at the age of 96.
Biographical information came from the finding aid for the Charlotte Cramer Sachs papers at the National Museum of America History, identifier NMAH.AC.0878, and from other Smithsonian resources: https://invention.si.edu/invention-stories/charlotte-cramer-sachs
The sculptor Karl Kowalczewski was born in Schwarzenau, Germany in 1876. He studied at the academy in Berlin under Ludwig Manzel, he won the Rome Prize of the academy, and he took part in the Great Exhibition of 1909. Karl Kowalczewski died in Berlin in 1927.
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Citation
Kowalczewski, Karl: Profile of Charlotte Cramer, Leo Baeck Institute, 2007.9.