The Gottschalk and Krakauer Families Collection contains papers of members of the related Gottschalk and Krakauer families. The collection contains a large amount of material on the immigration experiences of the Gottschalk family, correspondence on of Auguste Krakauer, photographs of Hans Krakauer, and other documents.
About half the collection contains the correspondence of members of the Gottschalk family, with a prominent theme among the extensive correspondence of Series I being the immigration of family members. The correspondence includes detailed discussion of family members' daily lives, with mention of Hans and Elizabeth Krakauer's lives in New York, the Gottschalk family members' efforts to receive visas in order to leave Germany, as well as news of others and their lives while the Gottschalks waited and prepared to leave Germany. Later correspondence describes their lives in England. Telegrams in Series II related to the family's efforts to secure the release of Fritz Gottschalk from Buchenwald as well his later correspondence to acquire visas in order to bring Gottschalk and Krakauer family members to the United States. Correspondence of Auguste Krakauer prior to her emigration from Germany is also present in Series II.
Series I additionally contains some documentation on Molling & Co., the department store owned by the family. Other documentation includes information on Henriette Gottschalk's deportation to Theresienstadt and Walter Gottschalk's photographs of the repatriation of Germans from Japan at the end of World War II.
In addition, Series II holds documentation on the education and professional lives of Hans and Elizabeth Krakauer. Such papers include photographs of Hans Krakauer's membership in the Kartell-Convent der Verbindungen deutscher Studenten jüdischen Glaubens as well as photographs of his work as a physician in Germany. Elizabeth Krakauer's career as a librarian, and in particular her service in the library field as a Peace Corps member in Colombia, is also described in Series II.
