The Brunner Family. An Estate

Photo: Dietmar Walser

Four years ago, the Jewish Museum received an extensive permanent loan: the estate of Carlo Alberto Brunner. Paintings, letters and documents, photographs, memorabilia and everyday objects of this Hohenems family enable a critical look at a European century. And they open a panoramic view on a family that in the first half of the 19^th century set out from Hohenems to Trieste to contribute to the development of the Habsburg Monarchy’s Mediterranean metropolis. From here, members of the Brunner family went on to Vienna and Switzerland, to England, Germany, and the USA. Their steep social and cultural ascent ended in Europe’s catastrophe, in the ravages of a continent filled with mutual hatred, and in the devastations of two world wars, which dispersed parts of the family around the world.