Skip to main content

Leo and Anne Marie Grebler Family Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25872

Scope and Contents

The Leo and Anne Marie Grebler Family Collection records the Greblers’ personal and professional lives in Germany and the United States through correspondence, documents, family histories, writings, and photographs.

Personal materials include vital documents, educational records, and obituaries for both Leo and Anne Marie Grebler. Leo’s memoirs of his life in Germany through the time of his immigration to the United States are also present. Photographs spanning the 20th century show Leo and Anne Marie’s lives both in Germany and in the United States; family members, including their daughter Jean and grandson Eliot, as well as Anne Marie’s parents and brother, feature prominently in the photographs. Both the photographs and personal correspondence available in the collection demonstrate the Greblers close relationships with their extended family and friends, particularly Jacob (called Jascha) and Marianne (called Bertel) Marschak.

A substantial quantity of information regarding the Grebler, Gerson and related families is also available. These details can be found through correspondence, extensive family trees and histories, photographs, and small a quantity of documents regarding Leo Grebler’s parents.

Professional records include correspondence and contracts, diplomas and certificates, biographical sketches, and Leo Grebler’s writings both about general economic topics and writings focused more closely on his specific research interests in real estate and housing finance.

Dates

  • undated, 1879-1996

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in English and German.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Access Information

Readers may access the collection by visiting the Lillian Goldman Reading Room at the Center for Jewish History. We recommend reserving the collection in advance; please visit the LBI Online Catalog and click on the "Request" button.

Biographical / Historical

Anne Marie Grebler née Gerson was born November 15, 1901, in Hamm, Germany, to Emil Gerson (April 2, 1867-May 14, 1952) and Elsa Gerson née Fehr (January 13, 1870-February 9, 1950). She married Leo Grebler in Berlin on May 1, 1927. Anne Marie was trained as a social worker in Berlin, where she worked in the profession from 1925 through 1927. Her first position in the United States was as a psychiatric social worker at the Jewish Social Service Agency in Washington, D.C. In 1942, Anne Marie joined the staff of the Family Service Association of Washington as a senior caseworker, a position she held until 1945. She received a Master of Science in education, majoring in psychology, from the City College of New York in 1952. From 1955 until 1958, she worked as a school psychologist at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. From 1962 to 1963, she was employed as a Senior Psychometrist at the UCLA Extension’s Counseling and Testing Services Center. She continued at UCLA as an educational therapist at the university’s Fernald School from 1964 till 1971; thereafter, she worked as an educational therapist in private practice. Anne Marie Grebler died May 30, 1993.

Leo Grebler was born in Berlin on April 25, 1900, to Abraham Grebler (December 12, 1867-January 15, 1935) and Sara Grebler née Margulies (1871-November 29, 1925). He earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Giessen in 1926 with a dissertation entitled Das volkswirtschaftliche Problem der industriellen Absatzorganisation. Immediately thereafter, he worked in real estate for two years in the employ of Deutsche Grundbesitz AG. From 1931 until 1935 he was employed by the Frankfurter Zeitung as part of their commercial editorial staff; he held a similar position with Magazin der Wirtschaft from 1928-1931. Leo and his wife Anne Marie emigrated from Geneva in July 1937, settling in Washington, D.C. Leo was first employed by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (1938-1944), then the National Housing Agency. In 1948, he was appointed as research professor in urban land use and housing at Columbia University, a position that he held until 1955. In 1958, he was appointed professor of real estate and urban land economics in the Graduate School of Business Administration at University of California, Los Angeles. Leo Grebler died on April 2, 1991.

Leo and Anne Marie’s daughter Jean Helen was born on October 24, 1945. Jean and her husband Donald Quataert have one son, Eliot.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (3 bankers boxes)

1 Boxes (1 OS box)

Abstract

The Leo and Anne Marie Grebler Family Collection records the Greblers’ personal and professional lives in Germany and the United States through correspondence, documents, family histories, writings, and photographs. Both the personal correspondence and photographs available in the collection demonstrate the Greblers close relationships with their extended family and friends, particularly Jacob (called Jascha) and Marianne (called Bertel) Marschak. A substantial quantity of information regarding the Grebler, Gerson and related families is also available. Writings by Leo Grebler elucidate his career as an economist and his special interest in real estate and housing finance.

Arrangement

An inventory by Leo and Anne Marie Grebler’s daughter Jean Quataert divides the materials into the following sections: archives (personal papers, genealogies, and documents), photo albums and loose pictures, and publications. Publications have been removed to the LBI Library. Archival materials are arranged along the guidelines of the original inventory.

Series I: Archives of Leo and Anne Marie Grebler, undated, 1892-1993
Subseries I: Correspondence, undated, 1892-1993
Subseries II: Documents, undated, 1900-1993
Subseries III: Genealogy/Family History, undated, 1947-1989
Subseries IV: Writings, undated, circa 1915-1986
Series II: Photographs, undated, 1879-1996




Other Finding Aids

A collection inventory compiled by Leo and Anne Marie Grebler’s daughter Jean Helen (Grebler) Quataert can be found in Box 1, Folder 1.

Related Materials

Leo Grebler’s work German-Jewish immigrants to the United States during the Hitler period (ME 716) is available through the LBI Memoir Collection. An interview with Leo Grebler is available through The oral history collection of the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, New York (AR 25385).

Separated Materials

Books written or edited by Leo Grebler were removed to the LBI Library. Clippings have been removed to the LBI Clippings Collection.

Processing Information

Collections materials arrived in original folders and envelopes. Envelopes and folders were discarded, and items rehoused in archival folders; any materials originally together in a folder were kept together. Extant labels or folder titles were retained. When necessary, albums were disassembled. Folders containing albums were labeled according to the descriptive information available in the original inventory.

Title
Guide to the Leo and Anne Marie Grebler Family Collection
Author
Sarah Glover
Date
© 2020
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States