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Historical records matching Ida Erlanger
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About Ida Erlanger
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Ida was born into a banking family. She was musical and played several instruments. She was skilled at embroidery and was passionate about the music of Mozart. She was sent to England to study at a private girl's school circa 1908, then returned to Germany and married Theodor Erlanger, a lawyer, in 1912. She and Theo lived in Munich and bought a summer home -- an old inn -- in Bad Tölz, where Theo's large collection of Bavarian peasant folk art was housed. The family was Jewish, but numerous carefully staged photos exist showing them in Tölz dressed in "peasant clothing" (19th century rural Bavarian Christian-style garments) that they purchased from local farmers. In some of these photos, Ida is showing playing an antique lute; she knew many Medieval German (non-Jewish) folk songs.
Theo was a German army officer in World War One. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war in France. During this period of chaos, Ida took their two daughters to live in the summer house, where they could find food. My mother told me that Ida used "an old antique illustrated botany book" to identify edible plants, and that they got eggs from a local farmer's wife. After Theo returned, the family's life in Munich resumed, and the Tölz home was again used as a getaway for weekends and vacations.
When Hitler came to power, the family (and a number of relatives from urban areas) retreated to Bad Tölz, hoping to lay low in the countryside, in the belief that "the troubles" would blow over. Ida got the idea that if the family received baptism as Lutherans, that would stop any problems, but of course, it did not. (According to my mother, she chose the Lutheran denomination because virtually all of the residents of Bad Tölz were Catholics, and thus being a nominal Lutheran would exempt her from having to actually attend a Christian church.) This strategy failed when the family was reported to authorities as Jewish by Ida's daughter Lilo's Aryan boyfriend, and so all of the family members who had come to Tölz had to leave, singly and in groups.
Ida first emigrated to England, where her brother Bruno lived. Theo was briefly taken to a concentration camp but was released due to his membership in the Freemasons. Eventually Theo, Ida, and their two daughters, along with a few other family members, were reunited in the United States. After the end of the war, Theo sued to reclaim their summer home in Bad Tölz and he and Ida continued to spend summers there and winters in New York.
Ida kept "pet" frogs all her life, from childhood to old age. She had type II diabetes.
mtDNA h6a1a1a
Death data from "Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad" 8/11/1969 German Consulate, Munich
Freeport, IL, USA July 29, 1969
Mrs. Ida Erlanger
Funeral service for Mrs. Ida Erlanger of Germany, mother of Mrs. Ernst Wolff, Freeport Route 3, was held today in Germany. Mrs. Erlanger, 79, died last week in Germany.
She had resided here with her daughter for a few months before going back to Germany. Surviving besides Mrs. Wolff are another daughter in California; five grandchildren; a greatgrandchild; and two sisters.
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Ida Erlanger's Timeline
| 1890 |
July 5, 1890
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Nuremberg, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1913 |
June 6, 1913
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Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1915 |
June 12, 1915
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Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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| 1969 |
July 28, 1969
Age 79
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Sanatorium Sonnenhof, Tegernsee, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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| ???? |
Munich, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany
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