(moved from main Emile Berliner page on 22 Nov 01)
Emile (and Henry) Berliner Links and References.
Emile (and Henry) Berliner Bibliography.
HANNOVER BERLINERS:
Hannover Berliners
ADDITIONAL BERLINERS OF NOTE (this listing grew so much that it's now on
a separate page):
Additional Berliners of Note
For a missing Long Island Berliner, see the MISSING PERSON
notice, below.
For 1874 photos of Henry and Anna and 6 kids, see the
HENRY and ANNA PHOTOS notice, below.
BERLINER FAMILIES
[What follows is in no way "official"; I sort of fell into this and none of the Berliner
families seem to be related to mine in any way within some 300 years. Much is
hearsay or apocrypha. I am NOT claiming to be a long lost cousin or a
missing heir to some fortune of yours; nor am I asking for money for a guaranteed
authentic family coat of arms or whatever. In fact, I am not asking anything of
you, although stamped, self-addressed envelopes should be de rigueur and
even small reimbursements for postage and supplies, if required to respond to you,
would not be taken amiss (this project could get burdensome).]
LONG ISLAND BERLINERS
Being a curious type, I wondered about the various Long Island ("Lawn Guyland")
Berliners. I have run across a lot of "us" and am amassing a minor compendium
about "us" and going "off island", too. The best known (to me), William,
is William F., now off Long Island, who is near 70 and was born in Woodmere.
He turned out to be the uncle of a young lady I dated once in the early '50s; we had
joked about marrying without having to change anything. He had two brothers,
one of whom was Dean of the Yale Medical School for 11 years. The other (my
one-day lady-friend's father) was Bill's partner in
Berliner & Marx, the wholesale meat purveyors in lower Manhattan near the
Hudson, specializing in veal (Plume de Veau - "The First Name in Veal"), sold to
Beatrice Foods in 1980 and now in Brooklyn (Marx was a brother-in-law). Bill
flew out of Mitchell Field in the USAF Reserve in the late 40's. Their family
lineage is from near Hanover and, when I ran across them, they lived on East
Rockaway Road in Hewlett. Bill is trying to trace his family laterally downward
from his great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Berliner (1768-1838), of Harburg, and his
great-grandfather, Leopold Berliner, who died in 1857 in Bodenhein am Rhein, one of
8 children of Benjamin.
Robert Arbib's evocative book, "The Lord's Woods", noted on my Long Island page in
the section of that name, mentions Ben
Berliner (no relation) as a tireless champion of the Lord's Woods; he is not
William's brother alluded to as the Yale medical dean noted on my
Long Island Berliners list but is, in fact, B.C. Berliner, a doctor who lived
on East Rockaway Road in Hewlett ca. 1950 (confirmed by his grandson 21 Dec 06).
(21 Dec 06)
One of the best known of all Long Island Berliners, and an unrelated neighbor, is
Jay Berliner, a famous jazz clarineticist. He has a summer house in
Montauk. His father was from some Polish/Russian border town; mother same
story. Lots of musicians in family. First cousin (mother's sister, no
Berliner) is mother of Tiny Tim (whoopee-doo!). See also the Jay listed under
other noted Berliners, on the succeding page, who well may be another Jay Berliner
who summers on Long Island.
One Herman A. Berliner, another unrelated neighbor, is the Provost and
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long
Island.
Another well known Long Islander is Bob, who started Berliner Stereo
and Berliner Computer in the Great Neck area; the latter is now LeaseStar
(formerly in Port Washington and now in Plainview), selling programs for auto leasing.
His family is from Mishnitz in Lumtza county in Poland. Bob had retired to the
9,000' altitudes north of Boulder, Colorado, where (I was told proudly by his aunt on
04 Dec 99) he ran a very successful nightclub, Grizzly Bear. He
has two Berliner aunts living who are founts of information. Bob e-mailed me
13 Dec 00 with an update; it seems he moved from Roslyn, Long Island, to Frisco,
Colorado (9,200 feet) in late 1991, after selling LeaseStar, bought a ranch in Castle
Rock, Colorado (halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs, a better climate for
breeding and training horses - he's a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy's
Association and still occasionally rides competitively), worked for Denver Broncos
quarterback, John Elway, for a few years in different management capacities, and left
to purchase The Grizzly Rose (not "Bear"), Colorado's largest
nightclub, which he owned for a short time during 1999 and early 2000 before selling
it in order to concentrate on writing and other interests. Bob wrote a novel,
The Kriminal Justice System, under the
pseudonym Robert Alan Poe. In October 1999, Bob sold his original ranch and
purchased another property and a log home in Castle Rock (7,000') that "overlooks
everything", is staying busy doing consulting work for a number of businesses and
spends a lot of time writing and riding - both horses and motorcycles. Bob has
a brother Howard, still on Long island, who runs Sales Prophet Systems - a
consultancy to automobile dealerships (that seems to run in the family!).
Stanley D. Berliner is a noted surgeon at North Shore University Hospital.
He probably was the doctor who had an old 1948 Jaguar in the early '50s identical to
a clunker I had and who got my parts and vice-versa; Stanley was a collector of fine,
old cars. Meyer B. was a veterinarian who founded the Great Neck
Animal Hospital on Northern Boulevard and lived on Route 107. Bob B's. stereo
business was right next to the Animal Hospital and no one believed it was pure
coincidence, which Bob assures me it was. None of these folks was related.
Another Long Island (Great Neck) Berliner who doubles in brass is Neil Berliner,
M.D., psychiatrist and national lecturer on psychopharmacology, as well as the writer
and manager for "The World's Oldest Rapper", Fruity Nutcake, The Rapping Granny.
Neil has been featured on MTV, VH1's "Rock & Roll Record Breakers", Sally Jessie
Raphael, and Howard Stern radio and television shows.
The best known American Berliner is Emile, who was born on 20 May 1851 in
Hanover, Germany, and came here in 1870. He invented the carbon microphone
and the disk record and a method of mass producing it and the disk player, the
Gramophone. With his son, Henry, he developed the world's first
practical helicopter and Henry went on to found several aircraft companies in the '20s
and '30s (remember the Ercoupe/Aircoupe?). Visit the separate "
Emile Berliner and Family" page for more on this fascinating man and his famous
family (no relations of mine).
My own family background is directly traced to Posen, Prussia (now Poznan, Poland),
many generations back, ca. 1700, from whence the family came here ca. 1850 as
persons of some means. The family was into running clipper ships;
unfortunately, they stayed with this long past the ascendancy of steam! I'm
the last of a long line of male-poor generations (there are no male Berliners left in my
family after me). We had, until 1956, an old marriage certificate in German,
formerly in Samuel Berliner (Sr.)'s possession, showing an Isaac Berliner marrying an
Elsie {last name forgotten} in Germany (Posen or Berlin) ca. 1755. My father
and grandfather were well known Manhattan (New York City) funeral directors, very
active in professional, fraternal, and civic affairs, and often pictured on the front page
of the New York Times leading a funeral of some famous personage, such as Governor
Lehman or Babe Ruth.
Great-great- Simon Berliner 1803-1857
grandfather
{Collateral?} Samuel Berliner ????-1863 {I could have been a IV!}
Great-grandfather Marcus Berliner 1828-1908 (came to U.S. ca. 1850)
Grandfather Samuel Berliner (Sr.) 1869-1956
Father Samuel Berliner, Jr. 1901-1970
Me Samuel Berliner, III 1934- {I seem to still be around}
The family legend is that my forbears were court tailors (Hofschneidern) in Prussia.
When Friedrich der Grosser moved the capital of Prussia from Potsdam to Berlin in
1701, the family had to move with the court to keep its custom, becoming the court
tailors of Berlin (die Berliner Hofschneidern) and the name stuck (that was when the
use of family names was becoming commonplace).
Are you interested in more about various and sundry Berliners (and Berliner firms) and
do you have anything to add (and do you care)? I have added a
linked list of those I run across on the Web.
Berliner Bär (Bear)
The mascot or emblem of the city of Berlin is a bear (Bär), rampant:
This emblem appears on the coat of arms of the city and is NOT a heraldic device for
any actual noble Berliner (meaning the family, not the civic adjective)!
Our fuzzy friend is the one that appears on the fraudulent documents, flatware, china,
and glassware offered to unsuspecting Berliner families by unscrupulous
"genealogical" groups, as noted below.
There is a Berliner Bär site
(auf Deutsch) with one English page (in the left frame, click on Geschichte
and then on The Berliner Bear).
(11 Jun 06)
Berliner Miscellany
In Berlin on 27 Sep 1987, I spotted this street sign (in Wilmersdorf, as I recall):
(27 Sep 87 photo by and © 1987 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
(Of course, it almost certainly refers to the city, not the family.)
A Berliner is a sort of flattened, jelly-filled doughnut, which apparently
originated in Berlin; JFK cracked up the Berliners in his famous speech
because he said, in effect, "I am a doughnut"*. There is also a cookie called
"Berlinerkranze", from Norway, I'm told. Aha! - Norw. "Berliner
Kranser", according to Mama's Kitchen {link broken}
{n.o.f.} in Watchung, New Jersey, are Norwegian Butter Rings "made with
the richest butter, egg yolks and topped with pearl sugar" {yum!}:
* - JFK actually said "Ich bin ein Berliner" instead of "Ich bin Berliner", the
latter meaning "I am a Berliner" (I am from Berlin). However, there is learned
(and acrimonious - town vs. gown) debate about this; the "ein" makes it "a
citizen/resident of" Berlin.
A Berliner (the doughnut) is also known as a Bismark (per James T.
Ehler's Food Reference site).
There may also be a Chicago-area chocolate bar called a Berliner (I checked
- as of 17 Dec 97; Chicago never answered).
Speaking of the City of Berlin, there are Berlins in all northeast states except Maine
and Rhode Island (get with it, guys!): Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. In addition, a quick scan of an
atlas turned up Berlins in Georgia, Maryland, and Wisconsin, but none in Canada or
Mexico. So, there it is; just what you always wanted to know!
Berliners
are also a type of handcuff, a "famous escape cuff from yesteryear", made in Berlin
and seen in many Houdini-era escape show posters, and now reproduced.
Berliner is also a rather elegant type font:
There is also a junior high school (Realschule) in Hanover named for Emile, the
Emil-Berliner-Schule.
On the puzzling side, there appears to be a minor league baseball club called the
Win-Ick-Berliners;
I swear!
Mostly I ignore the adjectival (non-familial) listings, such as the Philharmonik, but one
of the more intriguing is the BERKOM (Berliner Kommunikations System),
Berliner communication system, a hyper-speed communication network researched by
Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. Several new problems have turned up in
surfing "Berliner"; old Dr. Ernst Berliner's* ubiquitous "Bacillus
Thuringiensis" keeps turning up in hits for agricultural reports from all over
California, Lawrence J. Berliner has published prolifically, and
"One siting option carriers have besides monopoles is placing sites on billboards.
Paramus, N.J.-based Berliner Communications, Inc. (BCI) works with 90
billboard companies from all over the United States that make their signs available for
wireless companies."
There are a number of beers in and around Berlin using the name Berliner;
Berliner Kindl (Children), Berliner Kindl Weisse (White), Berliner Kindl Habel's Bock,
Berliner Kindl Export, Berliner Kindl Jubiläums Pils, Berliner Kindl Pils, Berliner Kindl
Heller Bock, Berliner Kindl Johanniter Bock, Berliner Kindl Dunkler Bock, Berliner
Weisse (White), Berliner Pilsner Spezial, and Berliner Edelquell. You can see
four (4) Z-scale Berliner bier cars on my Z-scale model
railroading page (Z is only 220 times smaller than life!).
The Berliner Bank in Germany (wish I owned it!) had a weird URL (which no
longer seem to work): http://www.goon.de/ (
http://www.berliner-bank.de does)!
Berliners of the World, Unite! Ban this instrument of torture:
Actually, it is no more sinister (except when used on the left leg) than a "Berliner
Reflex Hammer"; you know, one of them thar thangs what you thumps a knee
with to make it jerk. A relative sent this. Wonder if it is named for one of
us'ns (Dr. Ernst?) or the city?
A bit of personal apocrypha: Some six months after my father (Sam, Jr.) died, I
had occasion to call his office on business. The elderly Irish(or Italian?)-American
switchboard lady he had kept on long after retirement age was still there and I
breezily announced myself as "Sam Berliner", forgetting that my telephone voice was
identical to Dad's. The poor lady cried out in mortal terror, "Oh, my God, my
God!" and I bellowed into the receiver, "No, no, Ms. Fitz {or whatever}, it's
Junior-Junior!", the office's endearment for me when little, which had stuck,
and she responded with a heartfelt, "Oh, thank God!".
An Allan Page posted a query on June 20, 1997 looking for information on Ephram
Berliner, 1850s in NYC; married to Bertha Meyers (his URL, http://www.tnp.com/nycgenweb/wwwboard/messages/1104.html,
is not on my server).
And then there is the putative "Barry Berliner", who probably doesn't even
exist, much like Betty Crocker or Ann Page, who purports to offer an "amazing
book", "THE BERLINERS IN AMERICA: FROM 1850 TO 1998"!
WOW! I'm SO impressed! I got a great coat of arms
this way, once - it turned out to be that of the city of Berlin (see
BEAR, above)! Another time, I got an "heirloom", "crystal" goblet (same
coat of arms). Mr. Barry B. may be legit., but I rather guess the book would
turn out to be one of those computer compilations of census data. If you want
to have a go at it, "he" is "with" Halbert's at
3687 Ira Road, Bath, Ohio 44210, and telephone number 330-945-8200.
Good luck and DON'T say Sam sent you! Halbert's is a census data
and heritage publishing firm, "specializing in surname products". Just for kicks,
I plugged in "Berliner" and they report a whopping 514 families in the U.S. (actually,
the accompanying letter claims all of 566 and even states that it offers census data
records of 27 Berliners); there are probably more than that many in the New
York metropolitan area, alone!
In a report from India, Bt
Cotton or Better Cotton?, Kunal Datt writes {excerpted}:
"Bt Cotton is a genetically engineered form of natural cotton. The main
advantage of utilizing biotechnology in agriculture are the possibilities of increase in
productivity through the use of newer varieties that possess properties such as
resistance to pests, diseases, and other stressful conditions like drought, salinity, or
water logging. Of these measures, imparting the property of insect (specific)
resistance through the transfer of a gene from Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) into target
plants by modern biotech methods is presently considered to be one of the most
advanced applications of biotechnology.
- - -
The toxin in Bt Cotton exists in nature within the microorganism Bacillus Thuringiensis.
The Japanese Bacteriologist Ishiwata Shigetane first discovered it in 1901.
Subsequently in 1915 a German scientist, named Ernst Berliner, isolated this toxin
from a dead Moth in Thuringen region of Germany. And thus the name Bacillus
Thuringiensis."
Does anyone out there know (or know of)
Ronald and Lois Berliner
n.o.f. from Rego Park Queens, New York, or their daughter,
Jody Paula Berliner?
Born Joanne Palermo ca. 1960,
she is claimed to have been adopted (from a mother who ran a store in Yonkers, New
York), at age 2 or 3 (ca. 1962-63) and her half-sister,
Anna Maria (born Michele Ann ca. 1959), who has located a
third sister, Roxanne (born ca. 1961), is looking for her.
This is as far as I've progressed (if you count my continuation pages) on what is a
very casual pursuit; let me know if you have additions, errata,
emendations, etc. Surfing for "Berlin" brings up
130,000,000
hits, while surfing for "Berliner" alone brings up
15,400,000
hits (on Google, as of 03 Jan 06 - it was only 100,000 when I started this page);
everything about Berlin comes up since "Berliner" is a German adjective meaning
"from Berlin". Deselecting the newspapers Berliner Morgenpost, Tagenblatt,
and Zeitung, and the Berliner Philharmonik, and the rapid transit "Berliner S-bahn"
and "U-bahn", and "Kinoprogramm" (movie program) and "Wetterkarte" (weather
maps), and German phrases such as "die Berliner" and "der Berliner", and such, can
drastically reduce the numbers and there are still too many! Deselecting
"Stimme", "ARiC", and "Treptow" also helps. For the continuation pages,
which you might enjoy, see the INDEX, above.
Here, for your great edification, is my 1993 Matchbox Collectibles model of the 1932 Mercedes model LS box truck (4¼"/108mm long) decorated for that very Berliner MORGENPOST newspaper:
(19 Aug 02 photo by and © 2002 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Henry and Anna Berliner - ca. 1874
I received a phone call on 15 Nov 99 from a gentleman in the Escanaba, Michigan,
area who has a portfolio of ten photographs from 1874 of Henry and
Anna Berliner and their six children, which he wishes to return to the rightful
descendants or sell.
LEGACY
What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!) lose interest?
See LEGACY.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police,
fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Berliner pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
1999, 2001, 2003.
2006
- All rights reserved.
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