George and Hildegard Lewin Collection

George Lewin was born in 1897 to Max Lewin and Rosalie Lewin née Rehfisch in Exin (now Kcynia, Kujawsko–Pomorskie Province, Poland). Max Lewin was a watchmaker from Ostrowo, where George Lewin attended high school. George Lewin left school in 1914 in order to volunteer and serve in the German army during World War I. In 1919, Lewin attended a “Course for War Participants” and in the same year, began pre-medicine at Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin. He graduated from Universität Berlin medical school in 1922 with specialties in surgery, gynecology and obstetrics and obtained a license to practice the following year. Lewin worked in a clinic for the next seven years. He married Hildegard Brandes in 1927. In 1930, he established and directed a 40-bed hospital for gynecological surgery in Berlin until 1933, when he was arrested and imprisoned by the authorities, resulting in the loss of his clinic. The German government revoked his medical license in 1938 and restricted his practice to Jewish patients exclusively. He immigrated to the U.S. in the same year. Before Lewin could resume his medical career in the U.S., he had to embark on a re-certification process of several years. From 1942 to 1943, George Lewin was a resident in pathology at Newark Beth Israel Hospital. In 1948, he obtained a license to practice obstetrics and gynecology and began a private practice in New York City. Lewin had a musical life as an oboist and cellist. He was an oboist with Jüdische Symphonie Verein of Berlin and the Amateur Symphony Orchestra of New York City, and he also played contrabass and cello in chamber ensembles. George Lewin died on May 23, 1990.

Hildegard Lewin née Brauchbar (Brandes) was born on January 6, 1900 in Hamburg to Oskar Heinrich Eugen Brauchbar, a medical doctor, and Margarete Brauchbar née Fabian, a musician. Her father died one year after her birth. She earned a music degree from Akademische Hochschule für Musik in Berlin in 1921 and in 1932, she completed a course and earned a certificate in exercise/physical training from Private Schule für Korperbilding Alice Caminer. Hildegard Brandes married George Lewin in 1927. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1939, one year after her husband George. Upon her arrival in New York City, Brandes Lewin was sponsored by banker Gerald Felix Warburg, whose father had been a friend of Brandes Lewin’s father. She found work as an exercise trainer, modern dance instructor and music teacher. Throughout the 1940’s and 50’s Brandes Lewin enjoyed a career in music, dance, theatre and radio. She performed as a pianist and a percussionist with chamber ensembles and orchestras. For live theatre productions, Brandes Lewin composed and performed music and worked as a costumer. In 1944, she hosted a classical music quiz show on radio station WBNX, Bronx, NY.