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Greta Loebl Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25101

Scope and Content Note

The collection comprises a wide variety of personal items, correspondences, documents and photographs of Greta Loebl (Series I). The same series contains information, photographs, descriptions and reviews on her artwork and her exhibitions. Besides, the collection documents correspondence of diverse kind conducted by her first husband Oscar Schreyer (Series II). Since the process of obtaining visas for his family members demanded not only strenuous efforts but time, a remarkable part of his correspondence concerns visa affairs. Official documents relating to this process are included in Series III, along with various other official documents.

Dates

  • Creation: 1902-2002
  • Creation: Majority of material found in 1939-1993

Language of Materials

The collection is in English, German, and French and Spanish.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Access Information

Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.

Use Restrictions

There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:

Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org

Biographical Note

Greta Loebl was born on July 28th 1917 in Vienna (Austria), where she spent her early years. At the age of 18 she followed in her father’s steps by becoming a master goldsmith. The Nazi occupation forced her to leave the country in September 1938 along with her future husband Oscar Schreyer. The young couple fled via Germany to France and remained in Paris until their visa application to the U.S. was approved. Since Greta Loebl did not possess a valid identity card the couple couldn't get officially married until they arrived in the U.S. in March 1939. From 1941 onwards the couple strove to acquire visas for their parents, but did not succeed: They were all deported to different concentration camps. Greta Loebl's parents were first deported to Terezin; after her husband's death, Irene Loebl was sent to Auschwitz. Chaim and Pessie Schreyer were deported to Izbica (Poland).

Greta Loebl Schreyer started working as a jewelry designer, before developing into a painter. Art helped her cope with difficult inner feelings towards her parent’s fate and early melancholic memories of her Austrian home. Her first solo exhibition took place in the United States in 1956. During the following years the painter held many exhibitions all over the United States. After Oscar Schreyer's death, Greta married her cousin Eugen Loebl, a well-known economist, and consequently reassumed her maiden name, now also her married name. In 1987, the same year her second husband passed away, she returned to Austria for the first time on purpose of her first European exhibition at Schloss Belvedere, Vienna. Later on her art has widely shown in several countries worldwide, such as in Canada, the Czech Republic, Austria, Israel and in the United States. Greta Loebl passed away on October 3rd 2005, survived by her two children and four grandchildren.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet

Abstract

The collection documents the private and artistic life of Greta Loebl, an American artist who was born in Vienna and immigrated to the United States in 1939. As an artist, she was professionally known under her married name, Greta Schreyer. Besides correspondence of a personal and business nature, the collection comprises photographs of the artist, family members and her artwork as well as various collected documents, articles and items meaningful to the artist. A remarkable part of the collection consists of her former husband Oskar Schreyer’s correspondence concerning the immigration of his own parents, Chaim Eisig and Pessie Schreyer, as well as his of parents-in-law, Sigmund and Irene Loebl and of his sister and brother-in-law, Gusti and Mosei Graboi. Furthermore, Schreyer’s personal correspondences are enclosed in the collection.

Related Material

The LBI Archives also include the Oscar Schreyer Collection [AR 6552].

The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Museum also has a small collection (0.2 linear ft.), the Greta L. Schreyer Papers .

Separated Material

A portrait photograph of Greta Löbl has been removed to the LBI Photograph Collection.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Greta Loebl (1917-2005) 1902-2002 AR 25101
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Anna-Charlotte Lipp
Date
© 2010
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Edition statement
This version was derived from GretaLoebl.xml

Revision Statements

  • June 06, 2013 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States