From Czernowitz to China and beyond: a 20th century life

Abstract

"From Czernowitz to China and Beyond is the verbatim memoir of an extraordinary woman born of Jewish parents in 1890 in Czernowitz, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She describes her life in Czernowitz as a child, China in 1910, New York in 1912 and Shanghai again in 1924. Ethel Liebman Wiesinger tells of being married to a German entrepreneur in pre-revolutionary China and how politics affected her life. Her husband Otto Wiesinger, a lifelong German, fought against Japan in Tsingtau, China during WWI and later sought to import arms to support warlord Chang Tso-lin. In the 1930s, they had an Asian arts store in San Francisco that went bankrupt during the Great Depression. In 1938 Otto returned to Germany to support Hitler. Now on her own, Ethel opened the Beverly Hills Hotel Gift Shop and knew many celebrities. After retirement she lived in Charlevoix, Michigan, until her death in 1984. Additional stories of the family's life in the 20th century are written by her daughters. Edith Gilbert: My Shanghai--At Age Seven and Margot Smith: Growing Up In Beverly Hills"--