Franz and Grete Hillinger Collection 1915-2014 Bulk dates: 1950-1999

The Franz and Grete Hillinger Collection holds the papers of Franz and Grete Hillinger and of other Hillinger family members. The collection focuses on former family property in Brieselang, Germany, with some information on the family history and specific family members' details. Documentation includes personal, legal, financial, and official correspondence, identification papers, curricula vitae, articles on family history, and wills.2 linear feet of boxes of slides have been removed to the LBI Photograph Collection. The slides were taken by Franz Hillinger during his travels in Europe and in the Near East from the 1930 until his death in 1975.Franz Hillinger was born in 1895 as Ferenc (Feri) Hillinger in Grosswardein/Nagyvárad in Austria-Hungary (today Oradea, Romania), the son of Jewish parents. His parents were Miksa (Max) and Rosa (née Schwartz) Hillinger, owners of a hotel and restaurant, and he had a younger brother, Kalman. From 1915-1918 he served in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front. While studying architecture in Budapest, unrest led to Jewish students being barred from studying, so in 1919 he went to Berlin to study architecture at the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg, from which he graduated in 1922; while in Berlin he met Grete Grigoleit.Grete was born on August 14, 1900 in Tilsit, East Prussia, the daughter of Martin and Bertha Auguste (née Süß) Grigoleit, who were Lutherans. After Martin's bicycle business failed, the couple had moved to Berlin, where he found a position at the electrical firm Siemens. They were able to buy land in Brieselang, outside of Berlin, where by 1925 they had built a house with fruit trees and a large garden.During the 1920s, Franz Hillinger worked as an architect in Berlin and taught architecture at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg. Franz and Grete Hillinger had two children: Claude (born Klaus) Hillinger and Edith Hillinger, both born in Berlin, in 1930 and 1933, respectively. In 1937 the Hillingers went to Turkey, where Franz Hillinger worked as an architect for the Turkish Education Ministry and taught architectural design at the State Academy for Fine Art (Güzel Satlar Akademisi) in Istanbul. In 1948, Grete Hillinger and their children immigrated to the United States, but as a result of having been born in Romania, Franz Hillinger’s immigration was postponed due to quota restrictions. In 1950 he converted to Catholicism as part of an unsuccessful attempt to come to the United States via Brazil. After working in Canada and in Turkey, where he designed the reconstruction of the Turkish Parliament, Franz Hillinger joined his family in New York in 1956. He died in New York in 1973. Grete Hillinger died in 1996.Finding aid available online:Processeddigitize