Key German-Jewish figures

The Austrian-Czech architect, photographer, painter and educator was one of the most successful Bauhaus students. In the 1920s, she managed to establish herself with her interior designs. She also set an important course for art therapy. Via Vienna and Prague, she was deported to Terezin (Theresienstadt) in 1942, and was killed two years later in Auschwitz.

Joseph Joachim was born in Kopcseny, not far from Bratislava, the seventh child of a Hungarian-Austrian Jewish merchant family. In 1843 the talented musician studied the violin and composition at the new conservatory in Leipzig. He later organized the first Schumann exhibition at Bonn's Beethovenhaus.

At the start of the 20th century, the Nobel Prize winner for chemistry created the basis for the production of unlimited quantities of artificial fertilizer with his work on ammonia synthesis. He helped secure food for a rapidly growing global population. When the Nazis seized power, he lost his job and had to leave Germany.

The artist and art historian organized concerts and lectures with his wife Franziska. Active in the Frankfurt Cultural Association of German Jews, the painter dreamed of a Jewish artists' settlement in Yugoslavia. National Socialism forced him to emigrate to South Africa — where his work was forgotten. Kunsthalle Emden has 11 of the sole remaining 76 paintings.

Born to a devout Jewish family, religion never played a role for the journalist. From 1903 onward, he headed the "Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten," which was the largest newspaper in Saxony at the time. He was instrumental in the opening of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden in 1930. In 1942, he and his wife committed suicide to escape deportation.

The designer contributed significantly to the development of the modern concept of design, and left his mark on advertising and culture in the early 20th century. He created a typeface he named "Bernhard." Bernhard designed posters, packaging, textiles, interiors and brands for many companies. He emigrated from Berlin to the USA in 1923.

Versed in music, theater and literature, the author is considered a pioneer of 20th-century expressionist literature in Germany. As an editor and critic, he wrote for the "Frankfurter Zeitung," among other publications. He emigrated to the USA in 1937 and later became a professor of theater history at Columbia University in New York.

A survivor of the Nazi era, the poet was keen on how to deal with the Holocaust in a literary form. He received numerous prizes for his poems. For more information about German-Jewish personalities and their work, check out the digital remembrance project Tsurikrufn.de.