Steiner Family Collection

Brigitte Camilla Emilie Marquard was born on August 10, 1910 in Stuttgart, the daughter of the author Anton Alfred Marquard and his wife Christine Ernestine née Sohm. Brigitte, who had an affinity for art, wanted to attend art school after completing her education. However, her parents insisted she spend a year learning a practical skill, so instead Brigitte spent a year as a student at the municipal children's home (Staedtisches Kinderheim) to learn the care of toddlers and infants. Near the end of her time at the children's home she encountered a new assistant physician, Hans Levi. Soon after her studies she left Stuttgart for a trip with her mother to Baden-Baden, where by chance she met Hans Levi's parents. She then had a three-month stay in Besançon, France, to improve her French, where she maintained frequent correspondence with Hans. It was in a letter during this time when Hans first mentioned marriage. After her return to Stuttgart they began courting; on May 10, 1931 Hans Levi and Brigitte Marquard announced their engagement. Hans Levi was born on November 26, 1900. He was the son of the physician Julius Levi and his wife Särle Steiner of Münsingen. From 1907 to 1910 he attended the local Volksschule, from 1910 to 1912 Realschule and then from 1912 to 1918 the Gymnasium (high school) in Ulm. From July 1-December 31, 1918 he was part of a field artillery regiment of Ulm during World War I and thereafter returned to his studies at the Gymnasium, which he completed in July 1919. The following semester he began his medical studies at the University in Tübingen, with further studies at the universities in Munich and in Heidelberg; he passed his state exams in medicine in December 1924. His dissertation concerned the care of disabled persons injured in the war and was titled Krüppelfürsorge und Krüppelbehandlung.

On March 27, 1932 Hans Levi married Brigitte Marquard. Afterward, the couple moved to the Vinzenz von Paul Hospital in Rottenmünster, outside of Rottweil, where Hans was to train in psychiatry. In December 1932 Hans passed his final medical exams and became eligible to accept the post of Oberamtsarzt (regional physician). On March 3, 1933, the couple's daughter Ursula was born. Two days later Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Due to the political changes Hans was unable to become a regional physician and instead stayed on at Rottenmünster.

Hans and Brigitte intended to emigrate to the United States through the assistance of Hans's uncle, Sam Steiner, in the United States. Due to Brigitte's pregnancy with her second child, Nicholas, they had to wait to leave. Nicholas Victor was born on October 11, 1934. The family left Germany with their two children for the United States on January 15, 1935 on the S.S. Europa. Brigitte's mother, Ernestine Marquard, traveled with them. During their first years in the United States Ernestine visited every year until 1940. In November 1935, the family changed their surname legally from Levi to Steiner.

At first the Steiners went to live with a cousin of Hans in Washington, D.C., where Hans worked in his cousin's medical practice. After a short while Hans learned from a connection in New York that he could take a language exam in order to qualify to practice medicine there, and the family moved to the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York. After some time the family decided to move to Lindenhurst, New York, on Long Island, where Hans established a medical practice that operated out of his home in December 1936. In the spring of 1937 they learned of the death of Hans's father, Julius Levi. In Stuttgart the Marquards looked after Hans Steiner's widowed mother, Särle Levi, with whom they had become close friends. They often took her into their home and visited her in Münsingen. Hans and Brigritte sent a Cuban visa for Särle, but it did not arrive until Germany closed its borders in 1941 and the family's news from Germany stopped.

In September 1937 the family moved to a new home on Wellwood Avenue, also in Lindenhurst, where the front of the house became the medical practice. During the following years the medical practice grew more successful.

When the children were 9 and 10 years old they began attending the private New Lincoln School in Manhattan, where Brigitte and the children stayed during the school week, coming home to Lindenhurst on the weekends. While in New York City in 1944, Brigitte began producing work in silk screen painting of Christmas cards, and shortly thereafter hired several staff to help with the work. She later became a designer of cards for stores on Fifth Avenue, as well as creating ads in Playbill and the New York subway system, and did work for a national greeting firm, Fravessi Lamont.

In early 1944 the family once again received news from Germany. Brigitte learned that her father had died two years earlier, that Särle Levi had died, and Ernestine Marquard's home in Stuttgart had been destroyed during the war. In January 1947 Ernestine came to live with the Steiners in the United States. Then the Steiners learned from her that Särle Levi had been deported to Theresienstadt in spring 1942, where she had died in 1943. Ernestine Marquard stayed with her daughter's family in New York until she became disabled after a fall at the age of 82; she returned to Germany to live at the hospital in Rottenmünster.

Brigitte Steiner continued her work as an artist and also produced a book of photographs inspired by her later travels in Europe. Her work was produced under the English version of her name, Bridget Steiner. Brigitte also wrote multiple memoirs that describe her life with Hans Steiner and the family's experiences in the United States.

In 1954 Ursula Steiner received her Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England, graduating in 1958. She worked as an actress in New York City from 1958-1960, appearing in the lead in the off-Broadway play "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" in 1958-1959, and as an understudy in the Broadway play "A Second String" in 1960. She appeared in two television shows, "From these Roots" in 1959 and "The House on High Street" in 1960. She then became a drama teacher at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and was head of the drama department of their Midtown Manhattan location from 1973-1993. After retirement from this position she focused on writing and creative work.

In 1952 Nicholas Steiner graduated from the New Lincoln School. He then attended Yale University, with studies abroad at universities in Pisa and Heidelberg. He graduated from Yale in 1956. He studied medicine at Wayne State University (Detroit), with additional medical studies at the University of Basel; he received his medical degree from Wayne State University in 1962. The next year he passed his medical board exams and received his license to practice medicine in New York. His early residencies and training in internal medicine and cardiology were spent at Roosevelt Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, and in 1971 he became qualified as a specialist for internal medicine. In 1985 he received his license to practice medicine in New Jersey. Nicholas Steiner was also an avid photographer.