Plaut family papers

The Plauts were a Jewish family that can trace its history in Willingshausen, Hessen at least until the end of the 18th century.

Abraham Plaut (1850-1907) was a teacher, school inspector and preacher. He married Emilie Cohn (1847-1936) in 1872, with whom he had seven children having settled in Detmold, North Rhine-Westfalen. One of these was Hermann Plaut (1881-1919), a tailor, who entered into the dress-making business with his wife Fredericke Wolf (d. 1936). Hermann served in the First World War and died of pneumonia contracted during it. Fredericke moved in South Africa where she set up a dress manufacturer’s with her sister-in-law Mali.

Hermann and Fredericke had two children, Alfred (b. 1913) and Erwin (1919-1996). Both had travelled to Johannesburg before their mother. Erwin married Faith Elizabeth Loy-Hart from South Africa; he founded the firm Plaut Interiors. Erwin and Faith had three children, one of whom, Martin (the donor), settled in London.

One of Hermann’s cousins was Joseph Plaut (1884-1969), who served in Japan as a correspondent for Reuters and also lived in China.

For a longer biographical history of the Plaut family, readers should reserve a reading room terminal to access this information which is in digital format