Pinkus family

The Jewish, German-speaking Pinkus family ran a textile mill in the city of Neustadt in the region of Upper Silesia (today Prudnik, Poland). The factory was called S. Fränkel after founder Samuel Fränkel, who started the business in 1845. It soon became one of the world’s largest producers of fine linens. The Pinkuses married into the Fränkel family by way of two of Samuel’s daughters, and management of the firm fell to son-in-law Joseph Pinkus. The company remained owned and operated by the Fränkel and Pinkus families until the Aryanization policies of the Nazi government forced them out. (The business survives today as Frotex Industries.)

Prior to this, many members of the wealthy family were prominent in the cultural and political life of Neustadt and the surrounding area. Most notable was Max Pinkus (son of Joseph), patron of the arts, philanthropist, and friend of the author and Nobel laureate Gerhart Hauptmann. Max collected a unique library of Silesian literature and local history during his lifetime-most of which was confiscated and scattered during WWII-and provided the inspiration for several of Hauptmann’s fictional characters. Another noteworthy family member was Max’s brother-in-law, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

The two central characters present in this collection come from the following generations: Hans Hubert Pinkus (son of Max) and Howard John Peters (son of Hans). They are the main correspondents found in Series I and appear to be responsible for compiling genealogical materials and preserving the family heirlooms found here.

Hans Hubert Pinkus

Hans Hubert was the last Pinkus director of the firm, 1926 to 1938. A veteran of the First World War (when he spent three years imprisoned as a POW), Hans Hubert was twice married and the father of three by the time he was forced off the board of S. Fränkel. His first marriage, to widowed baroness Elfriede von Vietinghoff-Scheel, produced son John (born Hans Joseph Pinkus) and ended in an amicable divorce. With second wife Elisabeth (Lili) Schottlaender, he had twin daughters: Johanna Hedwig (Jonnie) and Freda Marie (Freddie) Pinkus, born 1927. The family immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1939; Freddie, however, remained in Germany and died in 1940. In the years following World War II, Hans Hubert made ultimately unsuccessful attempts to rebuild the family business elsewhere. With the help of his former secretary, Helene Bauer, he filed a number of restitution claims for damages related to the loss of the company. His genealogical research may have been connected to these prolonged legal struggles or simply the result of personal interest, but he fastidiously maintained his address book (Box 4, Folder 5) and much of the notation in the genealogical index book appears to be in his handwriting (Box 4, Folder 4). After a second divorce, Hans Hubert relocated to Sussex, England. He was married late in life to third wife Charlotte (called Lolle), who survived his death in 1977.

Howard John Roy Peters

Hans Hubert’s son John was born in Neustadt in 1922. He was quite young when his parents divorced, and had Lili Pinkus as a step-mother by the age of five. (His mother Elfriede died when John was eleven.) In addition to his younger half sisters, John was raised with two older step-brothers: Lili’s sons from her previous marriage, Erwin and Richard Schottlaender. John was a teenager attending boarding school abroad when the family decided to emigrate. It seems he traveled separately to the UK, possibly by way of Lili’s mother in Brno, Czechoslovakia, while his Schottlaender brothers ended up in Argentina. Hans Hubert, Lili, and daughter Jonnie settled in Belfast. John joined the British Army shortly thereafter and in the early 1940s officially changed his name to Howard John Roy Peters. He was soon married to another young German-speaking Jewish refugee named Marianne Pollak. (Though she was Czech their two families had been acquainted before the war, since Marianne’s mother was a close friend of Lili Pinkus.) They eventually had three children together, but the eldest died in childhood. After his army service, John worked in the international textile trade (seemingly unrelated to his father’s ventures). He traveled often and spent some years living in Egypt. By the 1960s the family settled in Switzerland. Marianne, who was also known by the nickname Toni (sometimes spelled Tony), worked as a travel guide for tourists. She died in 1983. In the following years, John was active in the British Residents' Association of Switzerland as a regional chairperson. Much of his correspondence with his adult children and extended family is dated from this later period, the mid-1980s through 1990s.

John Peters maintained contact with a wide assortment of extended family, including relatives of Marianne, his late step-mother, and his father’s last wife. The relationships between family members and generations are outlined below.

Simplified Family Tree

Generation 1: Factory founder Samuel Fränkel marries Ernestine (called Esther) Polke, and they have 13 children. (Samuel’s brother Josef marries Esther’s sister Dorothea Polke and they have eight or nine children.)

Generation 2: Two of Samuel and Esther’s daughters marry Pinkus brothers. Rosalie (1840-1913) and Benno Pinkus (1831-1879) are one couple, Auguste and Joseph the other. Joseph Pinkus becomes a partner in the firm.

Generation 3: Benno and Rosalie have four children; one is Dr. Felix Pinkus, a dermatologist. Joseph and Auguste also have four children: daughter Hedwig (1864-1948) marries Paul Ehrlich, and they have two daughters; son Max Pinkus becomes director of the company, marries Hedwig Oberländer, and has three children.

Generation 4 includes Felix’s two children: Luise (married name Grab) and Hermann Karl Benno Pinkus, both doctors as well. Felix ends up in Michigan with son Hermann, who marries another dermatologist (Hilde). Felix's first cousin Max has three children: Alice, Hans Hubert, and Klaus Valentin Pinkus.

Generation 5 of the Benno-Felix branch includes Hermann and Hilde’s son Walter Hensel Pinkus.

Generation 5 of the Joseph-Max branch includes the three children of Hans Hubert Pinkus. With first wife Elfriede von Vietinghoff (née Hess), he has son Hans Joseph Pinkus (later called Howard John Roy Peters). With second wife Lili (Elisabeth von Fischel), he has twin daughters: Johanna Hedwig and Freda Marie Pinkus. Lili Pinkus’ older sons, Erwin and Ricky Schottlaender, are thus related to John's sisters but not to John. Hans Hubert’s third wife, Lolle (Charlotte Aschinger) also has a son, named Peter Margules, who is not a blood relation but counts as a character among the family correspondence.

Generation 6 of the Joseph-Max branch of the family includes the children of John and Marianne Peters: Margaret Dinah (1945-1953), Helen Judith (born 1951), and Anthony David Max Peters (born 1954).

From the guide to the John Peters (Pinkus) Family Papers, undated, 1827-2005, bulk 1938-1990s, (Leo Baeck Institute)