Gaby Glueckselig Collection

Gabriele Bertha Netter was born on April 30, 1914 in Wiesbaden, the eldest daughter of Bruno and Anna (née Herz) Netter, who owned the Julius Herz jewelry store in Wiesbaden. The Netter and Herz families had been in the jewelry business in Wiesbaden for generations since Gaby's great-grandfather founded his store there in 1843. Gaby had one younger sister, Doris.

After graduation from school (the Städtische realgymnasiale Studienanstalt Wiesbaden) Gaby spent six months at a boarding school in Switzerland. Although she had an interest in studying art history, it was impossible in Nazi Germany, so she trained to be a goldsmith in Pforzheim, continuing the family jewelry tradition. In April 1938 she traveled to the United States, where her father's cousins lived, with her parents to explore the potential of opening a jewelry business there. In September 1938 she left for the United States. On November 10, 1938 her parents' store was destroyed and her father Bruno Netter was arrested and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp. After his release, Bruno, Anna, and Doris Netter fled to Luxembourg, where they stayed until February 1940, when they departed to join Gaby in the United States. Gaby held various positions in jewelry shops in her first months in New York City. In January 1939 she first met Friedrich (Fritz) Glueckselig, a recent arrival from Vienna, Austria.

Fritz Glueckselig was born December 19, 1909 in Vienna. He was the son of Max and Pauline (née Weiner) Glueckselig and had a younger brother, Leo. His father was an antique dealer and had a store, Josef Glueckselig & Sohn, in Vienna. Fritz became a poet who used the nom de plume Friedrich Bergammer; his first volume of poetry was published at the age of 16, Aus meiner Einsamkeit. Fritz had a love of art, and after graduating from school, he lived in Paris from 1926-1931 in order to further his education in the art and antique trade. Thereafter he returned to Vienna to work as an art dealer and expert. His poetry continued to be published in collections assembled by individuals such as his lifelong friend Ernst Schönwiese, Hermann Hakel, and Hanns Meyer (later Jean Ámery). Although at first arrested with his brother Leo during an attempt to leave Europe in 1938, they were eventually able to emigrate, arriving in New York on New Year's Eve 1938.

On January 31, 1942 Gaby Netter married Fritz Glueckselig. In 1944 the couple became American citizens, changing the spelling of their names to Gabrielle and Frederick. Fritz Glueckselig was unable to serve in World War II due to a congenital nerve disorder that caused a tremor in his hands, and instead assisted his father in the running of the Max Glueckselig & Son antique shop, originally located on 57th Street and later on Madison Avenue. Meanwhile, Gaby Glueckselig found a position designing jewelry at the firm Art Carved (then called J.R. Wood).

In 1943 Fritz Glueckselig's poetry appeared in the volume War Poems of the United Nations. Starting in the late 1940s with the reemergence of postwar publishing in Austria, Fritz's work again appeared in Austrian publications such as Ernst Schönwiese's Das Silberboot as well as in anthologies such as Stimmen der Gegenwart (1954), Tür an Tür (1955), and in Hermann Hakel's publication Lynkeus. Assisted by friends such as Ernst Schönwiese in Vienna, Fritz's work was published in Austria beginning in 1955 with the second volume of his own poetry, Von Mensch zu Mensch. This work was followed by others: Die Fahrt der Blätter in 1959 and Flügelschläge in 1971.

During the postwar years Fritz and Gaby Glueckselig participated in the life of the German-speaking émigré community in New York City, to which many of their friends belonged. Such activities included attending events at the Austrian Forum and belonging to the German-language club Stammtisch founded by the exiled writers Oskar Maria Graf and George Harry Asher in 1943 and attended by many other German- or Austrian-born writers as well as those with an interest in art and literature. Stammtisch originally met in restaurants and cafés in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan before moving to the apartment of George Asher in 1967. Fritz, who since his arrival in New York had missed the literary friends of his earlier years in Vienna, was a frequent participant. Gaby often attended as well.

In 1959 Fritz and Gaby returned to Europe to visit Austria and Wiesbaden, along with Switzerland and Italy. Gaby visited her birthplace of Wiesbaden nearly annually for many years. Many of the Glueckseligs' summers included a visit to Monhegan Island in Maine, which inspired some of Fritz's poetry. In 1980 Fritz reIn summer 1981 Fritz's book Momentaufnahmen was published. In October 1981, he died suddenly.

Following Fritz's death two volumes assembled by Gaby Glueckselig (as Gabriele Bergammer) and Ernst Schönwiese from unpublished poems in Fritz's literary estate were published: Die vorletzte Stummheit (1984) and Die Kramschachtel (1991).

In 1988 Stammtisch moved to Gaby Glueckselig's apartment, gathering younger German speakers and visitors over the years; she continued to host it every Wednesday evening for the rest of her life. After her retirement from designing jewelry at Art Carved in 1990, Gaby volunteered for many years at the Leo Baeck Institute. Although at first she worked on archival collections, she then moved to cataloging photographs, which she did for many years.

In 2004 Gaby Glueckselig was honored by her birthplace of Wiesbaden with the awarding of the city's Bürgermedaille in Gold (Citizen medal in Gold). Gaby Glueckselig passed away on April 22, 2015.