Marion Koebner collection

Collection comprised of documents and photographs belonging to the Koebner family, including correspondence, personal documents, school reports and poetry. Open Max Koebner was born in Silesia in 1872, and married Mirjam Lewin, one of 7 children of the Rabbi Adolf Lewin. They settled in Ludwigshafen where Max was Chief Research Chemist at Raschig. One of the early researchers in plastics, he invented Leukorit, an artificial plastic material with the same physical attributes as ivory that was used in the manufacture of billiard balls. They had three children: Hans, Adolf (known as ‘Männe’) and Ruth (known as ‘Mäusel’). When the Nazis seized power Hans, who was working as a doctor, was fired under the laws which forbade Jews to work in certain fields. Hans immigrated to England in 1933, and his younger siblings immigrated to Palestine later in the same year, though Adolf later moved on to the UK while Ruth remained in Palestine. Max and Mirjam eventually followed their children to England in 1938.