Eugen Glueckauf, 9 April 1906 - 12 September 1981

Abstract

Eugen Glückauf * was born on 9 April 1906 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, the son of Bruno Glückauf and Elsa Pretzfelder. Both parents came from large families of Jewish origin, although both sides were thoroughly assimilated into the German background and they maintained few if any Jewish customs. The family background was middle and upper middle class, his relatives being active shop owners or owners of manufacturing businesses. His paternal grandfather, Moses Glückauf, had started his career as a weaver and ended up with a small shop in the town of Ruhla in Thuringia, where his father was born in 1876. His father began at the age of 15 as a travelling salesman. In 1906, when Eugen was born, he owned a small hardware store, and in 1909 he started, with one of his brothers-in-law, a larger shop for men’s clothes. In 1912 he moved to Berlin and established a manufacturing business for raincoats which in due course became one of the major producers of these goods in Germany (Silberstein & Co.). It was clearly a time when hard work and initiative paid off, for the Glückauf’s were relatively prosperous, having a spacious apartment, employing several servants, and from time to time hiring string quartets and other musicians to play in their home. They enjoyed the security that accompanied such financial means and were able to pursue leisure activities including frequent visits to Switzerland and Austria for skiing and summer climbing. * Glueckauf changed the spelling of his name from the German to the English form in 1947. In referring to him in the text the spelling is that which he would have used at the time.