Warmbrunn, Werner, 1920-

Werner Warmbrunn was born on July 3rd, 1920, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His father, Dr. David Warmbrunn was a chemist, who owned a commercial laboratory.

In 1936 the Warmbrunn family moved to Amsterdam, Holland. In Amsterdam, Werner Warmbrunn attended the Barleus gymnasium.

In 1939, his parents left Holland and settled in the United States. Werner Warmbrunn remained in Holland and attended a Quaker agricultural boarding school. In 1941 he came to the United States where he stayed with his sister on a farm near Cornell, Ithaca. He got enrolled at Cornell University in 1941 and earned his BA in 1943.

He taught at a conventional school in New Hampshire and Putney School in Vermont before moving to California, where he earned his Ph.D. in History at Stanford University.

Between 1949 and 1952 Werner Warmbrunn served as a Co-Director at the Peninsula School in Menlo Park, California. From 1952 to 1964 he was a foreign student adviser and director at Bechtel International Student Center, Stanford University.

In 1963, he was invited to Pitzer College by its president, John Atherton. Werner Warmbrunn helped design the academic programs for the new college (Pitzer College, an undergraduate liberal college was founded in 1963) and developed its community.

Werner Warmbrunn is the author of two books: The Dutch Under German Occupation, 1940-1945 and The German Occupation of Belgium 1940-1945 .

Werner Warmbrunn retired in 1991. He died in 2009.

From the guide to the Werner Warmbrunn Collection, 1885-2006, (Leo Baeck Institute)