Vienna

Vienna!

Klimt

Lippizaners

Sausages

KOBAKS!!!

The oldest records of Kobaks that I have found have been from Vienna.  Benedict Kobak (pictured above) was born there on November 28, 1871.  His parents were Leon Gideon Kobak (25 years old) and Klara Moretzki Kobak (24 years old).

At the time Benedict was born, the Austrian government under King Franz Joseph had been busy quelling uprisings within the Empire.  They had also recently been defeated in the Austro-Prussian War.  As a result, the government re-wrote the Constitution in 1867.  Prior to that time, there were very strict ethnic and linguistic regulations within the Austrian Empire.  In particular, Jews were very limited as to where they could live and practice religion.  At the time, they were permitted only to live in small rural villages.

That changed in 1867. Jews were allowed to live and practice Judaism anywhere in the Empire.  This led to a HUGE influx of Jews into Vienna, the center of Art, Culture and Commerce in Europe. In 1860 there were 6,000 Jews, by 1870 that number had ballooned to over 40,000.

Although I am not certain, It appears that the Kobaks (Leon and Klara) probably moved to Vienna around 1870.  They were relatively young, so they may have even moved independently with their families and met in Vienna.  I have found record of the couple having two children in Vienna, Paul and Benedict.  I have not been able to find out what happened to Paul, but Benedict grew up in Vienna and eventually emigrated to the United States.

I don’t know much about the life of the Kobaks in Vienna.  Although at this time, most of the Jews were lower to middle-class workers, mostly laborers, craftsmen and small-business owners.  In the 1870s, there was a stock market crash in Vienna that plunged Austria into a depression lasting 20 years.  As the depression lingered, it appears that the Viennese Jews, who had traditionally not been involved in stocks and money trading in Austria, began to be blamed for the market crash.  It appears a wave of anti-semitism in the previously Jewish-friendly city of Vienna reached a crest in the early 1890s.

Benedict Kobak left Vienna in 1894 as a young 23-year-old.  At the time many Jews were leaving Austria and there were large Eastern European communities building in the American midwest.  Benedict departed from Europe via the port of Hamburg on May 6, 1894.  He arrived in New York City on May 21, 1894.  He then made his way to Chicago where he became a lawyer.

Interestingly enough, aboard the same ship departing Hamburg was Frances “Fanny” Uscier.  Fanny was born in Vienna on December 30, 1876.  And was only 17 years old when she left her family in Austria.  Her father, Chiam Uscier was a Viennese Jew who never left Vienna (he died in 1898).  Fanny and Benedict were married on May 21, 1894 in New York City… the day they arrived from Europe.  It is fun to think that they met on the boat and fell in love a la Titanic.  Or, maybe even more scandalously that these two young lovers fled their families and country in order to elope.  Who knows????

Benedict and Fanny made it to Chicago by 1895 and they had their first child, Edgar A Kobak (b. April 18 1895).  Three other Kobaks, all girls, were born in Chicago to Benedict and Fanny, Alma Kobak (b. August 27, 1896),  Melitta Kobak (b. October 27, 1898) and Stella Louise Kobak (b. January 20, 1904).  Edgar was sent to study at Notre Dame Prep in Illinois.

The Kobaks lost their oldest daughter, Alma, in 1902 when she was only 6 years old.  By 1913 the Kobaks had moved to Atlanta, GA.  In Atlanta Benedict started a law practice with his partner Mr. Levy.  Edgar attended Georgia Tech and became an electrical engineer.  Edgar married Evelyn Hubert who was the grand-daughter of Union Civil War hero, Colonel Edward Hatch.

In 1918 another tragedy shook the Kobak household.  Fanny passed away at age 42.  Causes are unknown, but I speculate that she succumbed to the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept the globe killing millions in 1918.  Edgar and Evelyn were present at the funeral, but old family stories indicate that there was a severe falling out between Edgar and his father, Benedict.  In fact, my grandfather, James, Benedict’s grandson, in conversation claims he never met his grandfather, although Benedict lived until 1956 (d. December 1956, Coral Gabels, Florida).

I don’t know what the family tiff was about.  Maybe the loss of his daughter, and then wife made Benedict a bitter, depressed man? Edgar married into a successful Protestant American family, maybe that irked the European Jewish immigrant.   Regardless, something divided father and son and it was enough of a rift that it kept Benedict away from his grandchildren.  Benedict did re-marry at the ripe age of 62.  He wed Katherine Mabel Buchanan in Florida in 1934.

Benedict’s parents, Leon Gideon Kobak and Klara Moretzki Kobak also emigrated to the United States.  They left Vienna in and made it to New York in 1896.  It is unknown when Leon died, but Klara died in Virginia on March 8, 1931 at age 85. Records show her body was shipped back to Vienna and buried two days later.  This seems improbable.  I have friends in Vienna and will see if they can locate my great-great-great grandmother Klara’s grave.

So, my story of the Kobaks begins in Vienna.  Young lovers escaped to the new world to make it in America!  Benedict and Fanny would be proud to see how their brood turned out… living the American Dream thanks to them.