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The 100% original 8 x 13-½ inch Geburts-Zeugnis or birth certificate was issued by the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (or Jewish Culture Community) in Vienna on 28 May 1911 after the birth of Margarethe Grab on 19 May 1911. Her parents were Emmanuel Grab and Marie Henriette Grab, née Neumann.

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde was an organization that kept official records for the huge Jewish minority in Vienna and it still exists today. The additions on this Geburts-Zeugnis were certified by Michael Brösler, the Matrikelführer or Records Registrar in charge at the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde. [Brösler died in Vienna in 1927, his wife Rosalie was deported to the Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt in July 1942 and died at the concentration camp at Treblinka later that year.]

We discovered on the internet that Margarethe Grab’s father, Emmanuel Grab was a wealthy Jewish industrialist, the owner of several weaving mills in Bohemia (born 28 July 1868 in Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and died 27 June 1929 in Austria). The mother of Margarethe Grab mentioned on her birth certificate was the second wife of Emmanuel Grab and Marie Henriette “Mitzi” Grab who was born in Reichenberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Liberec in the Czech Republic. She died on 4 September 1954 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany.

Emanuel Grab was made a nobleman by Kaiser Franz Joseph I on 8 March 1915, and his noble name officially became Ritter Grab von Hermannswörth. After the end of World War I and the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its Hapsburg rule, Austria abolished all titles of nobility, so Emmanuel had to drop the Ritter title and changed his name to Emmanuel Grab-Hermannswörth.

Margarethe Grab was the third child of Emmanuel and “Mitzi” Grab. When she was born she had an older brother Paul Friedrich Grab (a very talented pianist who died as a result of an illness at age 19 in 1924) and an older sister, Alice, who in January 1924 married Dr. Franz Strauss, the son of famous composer Richard Strauss! Alice became Richard Strauss’ secretary and executor of his estate after his death in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in September 1949.

Shown left (for reference only) is the announcement of the death of Emmanuel Grab-Hermannswörth in 1929. Note the names of Margarethe Grab, Alice Strauss and her husband Dr. Franz Strauss (the son of composer Richard Strauss) on it.

Through the composer’s influence and contacts (Richard Strauss was the first President of the Nazi RKK Chamber of Music from 15 November 1933 through July 1935 and composed the Olympische Hymne for the Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin), Alice Strauss and her two half-Jewish sons managed to survive World War II. Composer Richard Strauss also used his influence to get “Mitzi”, the Jewish mother of Alice and Margarethe out of Nazi Germany around the time of the Anschluß. She spent the war in Lucerne, Switzerland. However, he was unable to secure the release of Mitzi’s Jewish mother, Pauline Neumann, from the Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt. Pauline Neumann, and many other relatives of Alice and Margarethe Grab died in Nazi concentration camps.

This historic birth certificate has several important handwritten additions regarding the naming of Emmanuel Grab as a nobleman by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor in 1915, and the resulting name change of the family from Grab to Grab von Hermannswörth. The handwritten addition on the front side is dated 23 April 1919 and the one on the back is dated 6 December 1921 when the family name was officially changed to Grab-Hermannswörth after noble titles were abolished in Austria at the end of World War I.

We also discovered on the internet that Margarethe Grab-Hermannswörth married a Vienna-born chemist, Dr. Otto Vetter on 17 January 1932 in Vienna. They had a son and two daughters, all three born in Genoa, Italy. Dr. Otto Vetter died in Genoa on 22 June 1987 and Margarethe Elisabeth Marie Vetter (née Grab) also died in Genoa, on 4 May 2008.

The fascinating but complicated genealogical story of the Grab-Hermannswörth family written above provides the most important historical aspects connected with the background of this rare Austro-Hungarian birth certificate of Margarethe Grab, but leaves any potential buyer with the opportunity to round out the rest of the story with information available on the internet.