Bergmann Family

Robert Bergmann (1894 - ?) was born 1894 in the Sudetenland region, now part of the Czech Republic. He apparently moved to Vienna as a child and attended school and took courses at the Export Akademie, a business training institute of higher education. From 1913 – 1938 he worked for iron and steel company Otto Graf GmbH in Vienna. During World War I he served on the Italian and Russian fronts from 1914 – 1918. He married his cousin Martha Bergmann in August 1920. Martha was born in Vienna in 1896. Their daughter, Hertha, was born in 1923. Apparently eager to establish a future for Hertha in an English-speaking country (and probably spurred on by the Anschluss), Robert and Martha succeeded in enrolling her in Hornsea College in Yorkshire, England in 1938, where they also had relatives nearby. With the help of his employers, Robert left for Switzerland in 1938, thereafter making his way via Paris to England. Martha was afflicted with breast cancer at this time and underwent an operation in 1939, upon her recovery she was also able to leave the country, apparently going straight to England. After being denied visas to Australia, Robert and Martha eventually entered the United States in May 1940. Hertha initially remained in England in order to finish school exams. She arrived in summer of 1940 as part of a children transport from England to Canada. The Bergmann’s first stayed a short time in New York City, residing in the apartment of theologian Professor Reinhold Niebuhr and his wife (while the latter were living in Massachusetts). It is unclear how this arrangement came about, but it resulted in a friendship between the two families. Hertha also became acquainted with the Niebuhr’s, working as a nanny for their children. They in turn assisted in her eventual enrollment at Pennsylvania College for Women after she had taken exams for credit at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After the short time in New York, the Bergmann’s moved to Ohio (at the urging of the NY Refugee Agency) in fall of 1940 but relocated to Pittsburgh due to better job prospects in 1941. Martha Bergmann’s cancer returned and she passed away in summer 1945. Hertha married John S. Caylor, professor of psychology, and they had 2 children (early 1950s). Robert Bergmann was remarried to Erna (Bergmann – Martha’s sister?) by 1952. Until 1958 Robert Bergmann held a variety of positions in the steel industry before turning to his life-long hobby and passion of books. Hereafter he worked for the book department of Kaufmann’s department store before helping to launch the new Book Center of the University of Pittsburgh in 1959/1960. The collection does not include information regarding the date of his death.

From the guide to the Bergmann Family Collection, 1901-1981, (Leo Baeck Institute Archives)