Martha Werner Collection

Martha Werner (nee Gruen) was born in Vienna in 1901. Her parents were Heinrich Gruen (1873-1924), a physician, and his wife Mathilda (nee Goldstein, 1875-1949). She studied at the University of Vienna from 1920-1922 and at the Academy for Social Welfare in Vienna from 1928- 1929. She worked as a nurse and as a case-worker for the welfare department of the city of Vienna. She married the physician Berthold Werner in 1924.

After her emigration to the US in 1939, she first worked as a massage therapist. She later received her B.S. with a major in psychology (1953) and her MA in vocational counseling (1954) from Columbia University and worked as a research assistant. She died in 1985.

Martha's sister Hansi was born in 1904. She married the lawyer Georg Anton Weisz. After their immigration, Georg Weisz first worked for the research library of the Department of State and later became a senior information analyst for the Free Europe Committee, which broadcasted information about the West to Communist countries in Europe. He died in 1963.

Martha's third sister, Liesel (Elise) Riesel (nee Gruen) married Josef Riesel in 1928. In 1930, she received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Vienna. She immigrated to Moscow after the war and taught German at the university. She published on linguistics and received the F.C.-Weiskopf award of the Deutsche Akademie der Kuenste of German Democratic Republic in 1963.

Berthold Werner was born in Vienna in 1898. His parents were Koloman Kohn (1863-1930), a civil servant, and his wife Rosa (nee Heumann, 1865-1941). The family changed its last name from Kohn to Werner in 1905.He studied law in Vienna and received his degree in 1920. From 1921 until 1933 he worked for the Zentral-Europaeische Laenderbank in Vienna. After 1933 he took serveral classes and workshops on accounting and engineering. He immigrated to the US with his wife in 1939, and later worked for the Military Government in Germany. He died in 1984.