Trude Kersten Family Collection

Jenny Brinitzer, née Kaplan, was born in Riga, in present day Lativia, on July 15th,1884. At the age of 14 she started to study to become a doctor. Focused on this profession she began to study medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 1901. As a 17-year-old she was one of the youngest students of the faculty of medicine. Due to her intelligence and her medical talent she stood out from her fellow students in her first semester and attracted the attention of her professors. After a very brief time she became friends with Professor Strasser (anatomist and physiologist) and his family, who invited her frequently to his home. This friendship continued until her departure from Bern in 1906.

In April 1905 Jenny met Eugen Brinitzer at a Russian Ball. He was born in Neisse [now in Poland] on March 10th, 1879. In her memoirs she remembered their first encounter as love at first sight. From that day on they had maintained a serious relationship. In 1905 Eugen Brinitzer came to Bern in order to work as an assistant in the dermatology department of the University. When Jenny Brintzer became pregnant in 1907 (and gave birth to her first son Carl in 1907), she withdrew from her university studies and moved to Hamburg Altona. Eugen Brinitzer received the opportunity to take over a doctor's practice in Hamburg. She enrolled and finished her last year of medical study at the University of Berlin. In 1908 Jenny Brinitzer had to move to Switzerland and Southern France in order to cure her tuberculosis. During this period Eugen Brinitzer stayed in Hamburg to run his very successful medical practice. When she returned to Hamburg Altona she was confronted with the fact that she wasn't accepted for the state examination at the University in Berlin. In her memoirs Jenny Brinitzer vividly described how she nevertheless became established as the first female doctor in Hamburg Altona. 'The fate was gracious to me', she recalled in her memoirs. During her studies in Kiel she gave birth to her second son Walter in 1910. Finally in December 1911 she passed her exams after many interruptions. In the following years she gave birth to two more children. Her first and long-awaited daughter Gertrude was born in 1916. Jenny and Eugen Brinitzer worked a lot but also enjoyed their life, she recalled. Eugen Brinitzer founded the Dermatological Society of Hamburg.

In 1938 they decided to flee from the Nazi regime, so they left Germany. Before Trude Kersten moved with her husband from Germany to the U.S. in 1938 she trained to be a chicken farmer. The couple moved to Bangalore, in southern India, and established a practice there. Jenny Brinitzer became a physician treating many leading members of British and Indian society. In 1947, after India gained independence from Great Britain, the Brinitzers decided to move to the U.S. and determined to live in Great Neck, New York, to be close to their daughter, Trude Kersten. In Great Neck they established their third practice. In 1965 Eugen Brinitzer passed away.

While their second son Walter Brinitzer established his own practice in Bangalore and followed his parents to the U.S. as well, their first son Carl Brinitzer moved to Great Britain in 1938. He, who held a doctorate in law, worked as a correspondent for the BBC during and after the war. Carl Brinitzer also published numerous books (including a biography of Heinrich Heine) and wrote frequently for German and British newspapers (e.g. Welt am Sonntag, London Times, Daily Telegraph etc.). He died on October 24th, 1974 in Sussex, England and left a widow, Vienna-born Berthe Grossbard, who became known throughout Europe as a radio singer. Ewald Kersten held a doctor in law and attended the Institute for World Commerce in Hamburg to specialize in International Traffic Management. From 1933 until 1938 he worked in the freight forwarding and shipping business, and later he became a branch manager of an International Shipping Company in Hamburg. In January 1940 he established the Kersten Shipping Agency in New York.