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    Title

  • Eight flatware utensils from the Preuss family

  • Physical Description

    8 objects : silver ; variable measurements

  • Date

    early 20th century

  • Summary

    2022.26a: knife

    2022.26b: medium sized spoon

    2022.26c: fork

    2022.26d: large spoon with the name Kurt engraved on the handle

    2022.26e: child's food pusher with the name Kurt engraved on the handle

    2022.26f: small teaspoon

    2022.26g: small tablespoon with the inital P engraved on the handle

    2022.26h: child's food pusher with the name Gerda engraved on the handle

  • Medium

    Objects; Culinary equipment; Furnishings and equipment

  • Part Of

    Preuss Family Collection, AR 25974

  • Accession Number

  • URL

Biographical/Historical Information

Kurt Preuss was born in 1911 in Dusseldorf to father Philipp and mother Anna (née Marx). He has one sister, Gerda, born in 1920. Kurt went to the Hindenburg Gymnasium and received his Arbiturium in 1930. He went to Frankfurt and Berlin to study economics and received a diploma in Frankfurt in 1933. When he studied at the University of Frankfurt, he belonged to the German Jewish fraternity 'Kartell-Convent deutscher Studenten Juedischen Glaubens'. He fought a duel which left him with scars on his forehead. Forbidden from entering college because of his Jewish background, Kurt moved back to Dusseldorf and eventually moved to Amsterdam in 1935. In Amsterdam, he worked for a rug importing company as a translater. Kurt left Amsterdam in 1937 after obtaining a visa for America. He found a job in America selling specialized products to bakeries. Philipp and Aenny visited Kurt in America in 1938, and he tried to convince them to stay; they returned to Germany briefly but then fled for England after Kristallnacht in 1938, eventually ending up in New York. Kurt had a successful career as a salesman and then as a partner in the firm. He died in 1996.

Gerda Preuss was born in 1920 in Dusseldorf to father Philipp and mother Anna (née Marx). She has one brother, Kurt, born in 1911. Gerda had been sent to Switzerland in 1935 to receive training as a nurse for babies, and then she moved to New York in 1939. Gerda worked as a baby nurse and then managed a medical practice while attending New York University, where she completed a BA in education and a MSW in Clinical Social Work. She was a psychiatric social worker at the VA for 30 years and also maintained her own private practice. She died in 2020 at age 100.

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Citation

Eight flatware utensils from the Preuss family, Leo Baeck Institute, 2022.26a-h.