Document Creator
Lilienthal family
Biography
Julius and Isabella Lilienthal of Mönchengladbach (formerly München-Gladbach) had four children: Ernst (Ernest) Lilienthal, Meta Lilienthal Kaufmann, Carl Lilienthal, and Anna Lilienthal Aschaffenburg. Ernest (1884-1964) was the first to immigrate to the United States, arrived in New York in 1911, established a successful printing company, Art Color, and a short-lived upscale New York magazine, Park East. He relocated to Plainfield, New Jersey, and married Meta Stern Lilienthal. His sister Meta Lilienthal Kaufmann married Otto Kaufmann, a banker from Mainz. The Kaufmanns lived in Constantinople through World War I and then in Cologne. Their daughter Dorothea immigrated to the United States in 1934 and married Gabriel Almond, and Otto and Meta followed in 1938, settling in Plainfield near Ernest. Their sister Anna also immigrated around 1938. Ernst and Meta’s brother Carl managed the family fabric business established by Anna’s husband, Bruel & Co., in Mönchengladbach until it was expropriated by the Nazi government in 1938. He was arrested following Kristallnacht and fled to England with his mother Isabella in early 1939. Isabella immigrated to the United States in 1939 and lived with Ernst. Carl tried to immigrate via Cuba and then directly but was blocked by policy changes and America’s entry into the war. He survived in England and never joined his family in the United States.
System of Arrangement
The Lilienthal family papers are arranged as five series: I. Biographical materials, 1913-approximately 2013, II. Correspondence, 1917-1959, III. Subject files, 1934-1964, IV. Art Color records, 1909-1957, V. Park East Magazine records, 1949-1961