Bequest Brunner family

The Brunner family was a German-speaking Jewish-Czech family from Saaz or Žatec, northwest of Prague. Hilde Brunner, born in Saaz on November 20, 1904, as Hildegard Lang, was a successful violinist. She was musically trained since her childhood. Later, she studied at the Deutsche Musikakademie in Prague and was instructed among others by Henri Marteau and Otakar Ševcik. She completed the academy's masterclass in 1924. During and after her education, she gave many concerts, sometimes together with her sister Margit Lang who played the piano. In 1929, Hilde married Hanno or Hans Brunner. Their first son Peter Brunner was born on April 11, 1930, and their second son Tomáš Brunner on April 19, 1934. In 1939, the family flew from Czechoslovakia. In June, the two children were sent to England, and in November, the parents traveled to Palestine. In England, several individuals took care of and provided for Peter and Tomáš alias Tommy. Their maternal uncle Ernest Kellner and his friend Hugo von Lustig supported the children and probably paid their alimony. The children repeatedly went on vacation with friendly families. Permanently, they stayed with English guardians at several schools. From 1939 to 1940, they lived at Clacton High School in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, southeast England, and from 1940 to 1942, they stayed at Bellan House School in Oswestry near Wales. In 1942, Peter got a grant and went to a different school. Tommy returned to Clacton-on-Sea. The emigration of the parents Hilde and Hans Brunner to Palestine was enabled by the construction company Rassco. They received their certificate to migrate to the English mandate Palestine through a so-called Rassco contract. After their entry, the couple lived in Tel Aviv and adjusted their names. They now called themselves Hila or Gila Brunner and Hinrich Brunner. The correspondence between parents and children indicates that the family members understood themselves as Czechs and wanted to return to their home as soon as possible. But after the Second World War, the children traveled to Tel Aviv in November 1945 and the family permanently resided in Palestine respectively Israel. In 1950, 1953, and 1966, Tommy Brunner traveled to Germany and evidently stayed there for longer periods. The bequest Brunner family covers after description, demetallization, and filing seven archival units with a total extent of 0.15 running meters. Since the record group did not have an inner structure upon the acquisition the processor Inga Steinhauser completely reorganized the holding during indexing in July 2023. It follows the "rules for the description of personal papers and autographs" (RNA, Regeln zur Erschließung von Nachlässen und Autographen). The holding is now structured in two sections: "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") and "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente"). The section "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") mostly consists of letters from the son Tomáš Brunner in England to his parents in Tel Aviv from the years 1939 to 1945 as well as correspondence between the parents and their children's foster parents in England. It also contains some letters from Hilde Brunner's music teachers to her parents. The section "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente") mostly covers programs and announcements of the concerts of Hilde Brunner, née Lang, and a collection of newspaper articles about her. Additionally, the section contains various personal records such as certificates, a marriage certificate, a Czech citizenship attestation, and an Israeli naturalization certificate.