DEUTSCH Origin of surname
Deutsch means "German" in German. Originally, the surname was a personal nickname for a German Jew or his family, in a non-German environment. Terms identifying Jews from Germany or other German-speaking areas are current in numerous European languages. They include Teutsch(er) and Deutsch(-er), that come from the old High German Thiudisc/Tiutisc, which the Romans transformed into the Latin Theotiseus/Theotises/Teutisca and the Italians adjusted to Tedesci/Tedesche/Tedesco. Several synonyms for German are based on Alemannen, in Latin Alamanni. A west Germanic tribe, called Swabians by their neighbours on the Elbe river, they invaded Gaul and northern Italy in the 3rd century and settled in Rhineland, Alsace and Switzerland. In Romance-language countries, derivatives of Alamanni, among them the French Allemand, the Spanish Aleman and the Italian Alleman(n)o, became synonyms for "German". The first Jews to reach Germany went there in the wake of the Roman legions and settled in the Rhineland in the early 4th century. The Talmud and the Midrash apply the term Germania/Germamia to designate the countries of northern Europe. Medieval Jewish sources first refer to Germany as Allemania. Later, the biblical term Ashkenaz came into use. Jewish family names based on terms identifying Jews from Germany and other German-speaking countries include the German Deutsch and Teutsch, the Yiddish Teitsh, the Hungarian Nemet, the Russian Germanski, the Polish Nemets, the Romanian Neamt, and north Germanic forms such as Duytsch.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Deutsch include the German orientalist Emanuel Oscar M. Deutsch (1828-1873); the Russian revolutionary, Leo (Lev Grigoryevich) Deutsch (1855-1941); the Czech-born American scholar Gotthard Deutsch (1859-1921), and the Austrian socialist , Julius Deutsch (1884-1968), who was defense minister of the Austrian Republic from 1919 to 1920. In the 20th century Deutsch is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Deutsch family, who lived in the town of Zhadova (Jadova) near Czernowitz, northern Bukovina (now in Ukraine), prior to World War II. The entire Jewish community of Zhadova was deported to death camps in July 1941.
LENGYEL
(Family Name)Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
A striking example of such a place name is Poland which had one of the biggest and most important Jewish populations in the European Diaspora up to the Holocaust. The Jewish surname Lengyel means "a Pole/Polish" in Hungarian. The terms Pollak (German), Polacco (Italian), Polonais (French), Polacek (Czech), Lengyel (Hungarian) were used to describe a person living in or coming from Poland. Polin (the Yiddish name of the country), Polsky (the adjective in Polish) and their derivatives - including abbreviations and extensions influenced by the languages spoken by the ethnic majorities among whom Jews were living at the time - produced a great number of family names. The family name Pollack is documented in the 15th century in northern Bohemia, where it also appears as Polak in the 16th century. Benedikt Pollak of Prague attended the Leipzig fair in Germany in 1675, as did several Jews called Polack in 1676. The form Poll (which could be an abbreviation of Pollak or Pole) is found in 1693 among Jewish Leipzig fair visitors. Pohlack is documented in 1697 in Mannheim, Germany; Polacke in 1739 in Metz, France, and Pollyak in 1746 in Pressburg (Bratislava) in Slovakia. In 1751 the list of Jews attending the Leipzig fair included Lazarus Polazcsik, and in 1761 Enoch Polatschik. Polonais is documented in Paris in 1780 and Pollonais in 1798 in Nice, France. The variants Bolac, Bol(l)ack, Bol(l)ach and Bolackin were current in Alsace in the late 18th century. Polyakov/Poliakof(f), Polonsky and Polsky became frequent in 19th century Russia and America. Lengyel, the Hungarian for "Pole"/"Polish" was often adopted in the 19th century. The mid 20th century witnessed the birth of new French forms Bollack; Poulain from Pollak, and Poliet from Poliakof. Lengyel could also be associated with Lengyeltoti near Lake Balaton in Hungary.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Lengyel include the Hungarian composer Miksa Lengyel (born 1859), the 20th century Hungarian jurist and judge Aurel Lengyel, and the 20th century Hungarian-born American playwright and film script writer Menyhert (Melchior) Lengyel.
NEMETH
(Family Name)Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
The word Nemet is the Hungarian term for "German", Nemeth and Nemeti being variants of Nemet. The suffix "-i" in Nemeti stands for "of/from".Terms identifying Jews from Germany or other German-speaking areas are current in numerous European languages. They include the German Teutsch and Deutsch, with variants such as Deutschlaender ("from Germany") and Deutschland ("Germany"); the Italian Alleman(n)o, Tedesche, Tedesci and Tedesco; the Spanish Aleman; the Yiddish Teitsh; the French Allemand; the Hungarian Nemet; the Russian Germanski, Polish Nemets, Romanian Neamt, and north European forms such as Duytsch.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Nemeth include the 20th century Hungarian writer, Andor Nemeth.
WEGIER
(Family Name)WEGIER, WENGIER
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
This family name is derived from węgier, the Polish term for Hungarian.
Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. Many of these names, originally based on toponymics, have developed into variants which no longer resemble the form of the original source. Thus, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family.
Wegier is documented as a Jewish family name with Michael Wegier (b. 1965), Chief Executive of Board of Deputies of British Jews (as of 2021).
Gotthard Deutsch
(Personality)Gotthard Deutsch (1859-1921), rabbi and scholar, born in Dolne Kounice, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary in Germany (now Wroclaw, in Poland), and Vienna University, and then taught religion in Brno, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), and was rabbi in Most. In 1891, he moved to the USA, becoming professor of Jewish history and philosophy at Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1901 Deutsch succeeded Isaac Meyer Wise as editor of the periodical Deborah and edited the modern history division of the Jewish Encyclopedia. He belonged to the moderate wing of the Reform movement and sympathized with Orthodoxy and Zionism.
Helene Deutsch
(Personality)Helene Deutsch (born Rosenbach) (1884-1982), psychoanalyst, born in Przemysl, Poland (then in Galicia, part of Austria-Hungary), where her father was president of the Jewish community. Because of the limitations on female education, she ran away to Vienna to study to be a physician. There in 1912 she married the psychiatrist, Felix Deutsch. She was the first woman assistant in the psychiatric department of Vienna University and later headed the female ward. After encountering the ideas of Freud, she gave up her academic career and was trained by Freud himself, becoming a leading figure of the second generation of analysts. In 1924 Deutsch established in Vienna a psychoanalytic training institute which she headed until leaving for the US in 1935. In the US she was on the staff of the Psychoanalytic Institute in Boston. Her main field of study was on the female psyche, summarized in her two-volume Psychology of Women.
Jozsef II Hatvany-Deutsch
(Personality)Jozsef II Hatvany-Deutsch (1858-1913), industrialist, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire), son of Bernat Deutsch de Hatvan and grandson of Ignac Deutsch-Hatvany, founder of the Ignac Deutsch and sons, an industrial and trading concern.
Jozsef II studied at the Commercial Academy of Budapest and at the Hochschule fuer Bodencultur of Vienna, Austria. After a year's tour of Europe, he joined the family concern in 1880. Together with his cousin Sandor he took over a bankrupt sugar factory in Nagysurany and went on to found the distillery of Szeged and Temesvar (now Timisoara, Romania). By 1887 they had built three other sugar factories including a large refinery in Hatvan. By the 1890s they controlled almost 30% of Hungarian sugar production. He succeeded in driving out Austrian competition and helped make sugar one of Hungary’s most important export products. His banking and other financial interests made him one of the wealthiest Jews in Hungary. He represented his country on the Committee on International Sugar Agreement (Brussels, 1902). In 1908 he was appointed a member of the Court of Arbitration, which dealt dealing with points of disagreement between Austria and Hungary.
Jozsef was concerned with social welfare. For some time he was president of the National Labor Insurance Bank, an organization founded to extend medical and financial aid to workmen during periods of sickness and was vice-president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Jozsef also established pioneering welfare and sickness benefit schemes for workers in his own factories
Jozsef was a man of extensive worldly knowledge, and a connoisseur of music and a patron of the arts. He helped to establish various charitable organizations. Active in Jewish communal affairs, he was a trustee and benefactor of the Budapest rabbinical seminary and a generous supporter of the Hungarian Jewish Literary Society (IMIT). He was a Hungarian delegate to the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
In 1908, Jozsef II, was made a baron and in 1910, became a member of the Hungarian parliament's Upper Chamber. Jozsef Hatvany-Dutsch died in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in 1913.
Jozsef’s daughter Lilly (1890-1968) was a playwright. She converted to Christianity.
Felix Deutsch
(Personality)Felix Deutsch (1884-1964), psychiatrist, born in Vienna, Austria (then Austria-Hungary). He was educated in a liberal way and the atmosphere in his parents house was religious free. While studying he was confronted with the anti-Semitic atmosphere at the University of Vienna, and joined the Zionist student organization "Kadimah". He played an important role in the organization and advocated the minority rights. He became a friend of Herzl.
Deutsch dealt with emotional factors in physical illness, which brought him to establish a clinic for “organ-neuroses” (1919) in Vienna. From 1921 Deutsch lectured in medicine at the University of Vienna. The subjects of his research connected him with Freud, and they established the first home of the Psychoanalytic Clinic in Vienna (1922). Deutsch published many articles on the interaction of emotional and physical processes, and was one of the pioneers of psychosomatic medicine.
Deutsch emigrated to Boston, MA, USA, (1935), where he became research fellow in psychiatry at Harvard University. During the years he published many articles on psychoanalytical topics. He was president of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute (1951-1954). In his work he invented many scientific terms and enriched the psychological language. Before his death he planned to conduct a project on the art of children that immigrated to Israel from all corners of the world. Felix Deutsch was married to Helene Deutsch who was also a psychiatrist.
Judith Deutsch-Haspel
(Personality)Judith Deutsch-Haspel (1918-2004), swimming champion, born in Vienna, Austria. She joined the Jewish sports club of Hakoah Vienna, because as a Jewess she was denied membership by most other sports clubs in Austria. Competing for Hakoah, Deutsch became Austrian swimming champion and freestyle record holder, from 1933 to 1935. The Austrian Sports Authority designated her as the Outstanding Austrian Female Athlete of 1935. A year later she was awarded the Golden Badge of Honor, having been recognized as one of the three most outstanding sportspersons in Austria. Deutsch was selected to the Austrian National team for the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936, but she refused to participate in protest to the anti-Semitic policy of Nazi Germany.
She immigrated to Palestine the same year settling in Haifa, at the time the only city with an Olympic sized swimming pool in the country. She continued her career becoming a national champion and winning a silver medal at the World University Games in 1939, when she was a member of the University of Jerusalem team.
Following her emigration, the Austrian authorities stripped her of all her titles. They were returned to her, along with official apologies from the Austrian Parliament, only in 1995, at a ceremony held in Israel in the presence of the Austrian ambassador. Judith Deutsch-Haspel's story has been inserted in Hakoach lischot ("Watermarks"), a 2004 documentary movie by the Israeli director Yaron Zilberman about the women swimmers of the Hakoah Vienna sports club.
Otto Erich Deutsch
(Personality)Otto Erich Deutsch (1883-1967), musicologist and biographer, born in Vienna, Austria. For some time he was music critic for Die Zeit and from 1926 to 1955, librarian of the collection of Anthony van Hoboken. In 1939 he left for Cambridge, England, where he lived until 1953. In 1956 he returned to Vienna.
Otto Erich Deutsch devoted his studies mainly to the classical composers, especially Schubert. He wrote a documentary biography of Schubert (1946), and edited a thematic catalogue of his works (1951). All Schubert’s works are now designated by D (Deutsch) numbers, based on this catalogue. Deutsch also published two documentary biographical works on Mozart (1961) and a documentary biography of Handel (1954). He died in Vienna.
Bertalan Hatvany-Deutsch
(Personality)Bertalan Hatvany-Deutsch (1900-1981), orientalist, art collector and writer who became a patron of Hungarian literature, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary), son of Hatvany-Deutsch Jozsef II and grandson of Hatvany-Deutsch Bernat, who were raised to nobility in 1879. Bertalan was a successful businessman. One of the writers whom he supported was the great Hungarian poet, Joseph Attila (1903-1937).
As opposed to some other members of his family argued against the full assimilation of Hungarian Jews as well as the so-called double bond (feeling equally Hungarian and Jewish). Rather he felt it was important for a Jew to retain his ‘Jewish spirit’ while ‘adjusting to the traditions and spirituality of the larger community’. An active Zionist and a generous contributor to the movement, he held views similar to those of the Berit Shalom on the problem of peace between Jews and Arabs.
B. Hatvany left Hungary in 1939, spent some time in Australia, and then settled in Paris, France, where he died. His early travels are reflected in books such as "Azsia es a nacionalizmus" ("Asia and Nationalism," 1931); "Azsia lelke" ("The Soul of Asia," 1935, which was hailed by critics as an arresting study of the philosophies and the art of that continent, and which includes much of Jewish interest, including his impressions of Erez Israel); "Konfuciustol Nehemiasig" ("From Confucius to Nehemiah," 1936); "A kinai kerdes tortenete" ("History of the Chinese Question," 1938); and "Az ut es az ige konyve" ("The Book of the Way and the World," a translation of Tao-te King, 1937).
Bertalan Hatvany, president of the Concordia Mills of Budapest, was the only member of his well known family who remained a faithful Jew. He wrote extensively on a wide variety of Jewish questions, especially in the columns of "Mult es Jovo", a noted Hungarian Jewish journal.
Anton (Antal) Deutsch
(Personality)Anton (Antal) Deutsch (1848-1920), economist, born in Budapest, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire). He received his professional education mainly in Paris, France. In 1870 he joined the staff of the commercial section of the "Pester Lloyd", a German language daily newspaper printed in Budapest from 1854 to 1945. Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, Thomas Mann, and Stefan Zweig were among the better known contributors. He edited the commercial section for forty years and became an acknowledged authority on the Hungarian economy. In 1896, he was awarded a knighthood for his contribution to the prosperity of the nation. He contributed to the "Nemzetgazdasagtani Szemle", and the "Marche Financiere", which was published in Paris. His books on the Hungarian economy including "Geschichte der Ungarischen Maarkte" published in 1892 in both Hungarian and German; "25 Jahre ungarischer Volkswirtschaft und Finanzen" (1892); "A Pesti Lloyd Tarsulat otven eves tortenete" (Fifty Years History of the Pester Lloyd, 1904), and "Ruekblick auf die ungarische Volkswirtschaft", an annual economic survey which appeared regularly from 1908.
Moritz Deutsch
(Personality)Moritz Deutsch (1818-1892), cantor and composer, born in Mikulov, Czech Republic (then Nikolsburg, Moravia, part of the Austrian Empire). He went to Vienna to study music and cantorial singing. In 1842 he was appointed second cantor of the Liberal synagogue. From 1844 until his death he was chief cantor of the Reform synagogue in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poalnd). From 1855 he lectured on Jewish liturgical music and in 1859, founded and directed a cantor’s institute at Breslau.
Barbu Nemteanu
(Personality)Barbu Nemțeanu (born Benjamin Deutsch) (1887-1919), poet and translator, born in Galati, Romania. Orphaned by his father as a child, he held various small positions, such as office practitioner, reporter, clerk, in order to support his family. He spent his early years in Galati, then moved for sometime to Ploiesti, and finally to Bucharest.
As a publicist he collaborated to a large number of publications, including: Înainte (“Forward”, 1904-1905), Viața nouă (“New Life”, 1907-1908), Convorbiri critice (“Critical Conversations”, 1907), Viața literară și artistică (“Literary and artistic life”, 1908), Floarea albastră (“The Blue Flower “, 1912), Flacăra (“Flame”, 1912, 1915-196), Viitorul social (“The social future”, 1913), Universul literar (“The Literary Universe”, 1913), Lumina (“Light”, 1918), Facla (1918), Renașterea (“The Renaissance”, 1918), Scena (“Stage”, 1918), Rampa (1919).
In 1908 he published the socialist magazine Pagini libere, a literary-scientific weekly n which he published original works and translations.
His first work was Poezii alese ("Selected Poetry", 1910), his other works include a volume of poems Stropi de soare (“Sun drops”, 1915) and a much appreciated Romanian translation of Hebrew Songs by Heinrich Heine (1919). His other translations include both poetry and prose by Charles Baudelaire, Ivan Turgeniev, Ephraim Lessing, Nikolaus Lenau, Oscar Wilde and others.
During his career he used a large number of pen names, among them B. Askenazi, Ion Corbu, Ion Crângu, Vasile Crângu, Luca Zimbru, Cireșeanu, Barbu Exoticu, Germanicus Galitiensis, and Tedesco.
Nemteanu suffered from tuberculosis. With the financial support of his readers and friends, in 1913 he traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, for treatment. In Lausanne he learned Fench and started writing poetry in that language. He returned to Romania in 1916 and spent most of his last years in several tuberculosis sanatoriums. He died in Bucharest.
Lea Deutsch
(Personality)Lea Dragica Deutsch (1927-1943), child actor, born in Zagreb, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). She started acting at the age of five in professional productions of plays by Shakespeare and Moliere at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (HNK Zagreb). Her talent was recognized by both professionals and the general public and soon she was nicknamed the “Croatian Shirley Temple”. Pathe studios of Paris produced a short documentary about Deutsch.
As a result of the introduction of the anti-Semitic policy by Fascist Croatia after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers in April 1941, Deutsch was banned from appearing on stage and was expulsed from the school. The conversion to Catholicism of the entire family initiated by her father in 1941 and the intervention on her behalf by members of the National Theatre could save her from deportation to Auschwitz Nazi death camp in May 1943. She did not survive the six-day journey in a cattle wagon and died before the train arrived at Auschwitz. Her mother and brother, who had been deported in the same transport, died in Auschwitz, and her father alone survived the Holocaust hidden by a friend in a Catholic hospital in Zagreb.
Julio Deutsch
(Personality)Julio (Julije) Deutsch (1859-1922), architect, born in Linhartovy, Czech Republic (then part of the Austrian Empire). He studied at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna graduating in 1882, then he continued his studied in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and in Paris, France. In his youth he published articles on the history of architecture, particularly on the synagogues in Koln, Germany, and Prague, in the professional journal Förstersche Bauzeitung. He moved to Zagreb in 1888 and one year later along with Leo Hönigsberg (1861-1911), he founded the architectural studio Hönigsberg & Deutsch that towards the end of the 19th century and in early 20th century became a leading studio of modern architecture in Zagreb. His studio was responsible for the design of the building serving the headquarters of the Jewish community of Zagreb (1897-1898), the synagogue in Križevci, a city in central Croatia (1895, rebuilt in 1956), and the synagogue in Slavonski Brod, a city in eastern Croatia (1895, demolished at the end of WW2). After Hönigsberg’s death in 1911, Deutsch took over the company, and after his own death in 1922, it was inherited by his son Pavao (Paul) Deutsch (1897-1948).
Bogdan Njemcic
(Personality)Bogdan Njemčić (born Deutsch) (1885-1963), lawyer and activist, born in Zagreb, Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He attended high school in Zagreb and then studied law at the University of Zagreb earning a doctorate in 1909. He began working as a lawyer in 1914. In 1920 he opened his own law office located in central Zagreb. He was a member of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the Lisinski music society, and other associations. After the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers in 1941 and the establishment of the Fascist regime in Croatia, he was barred from practicing law and expelled from the bar association. He survived the Holocaust, hiding in Zagreb. After WW II, he served as a judge of the Military Court.
Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe
(Personality)Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe (born Salomon Henry Deutsch) (1846-1919), industrialist and patron of arts, born in Paris, France. He and his younger brother Émile adopted the suffix "de la Meurthe" to honor their ancestral origins in the Meurthe area of Lorraine. They took over their father's company, initially called A. Deutsch et ses Fils and later renamed Les Fils de A. Deutsch, and developed it into an oil company with refineries in France, Spain, and Austria-Hungary. After Henry's death in 1919, Émile entered into a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell in 1922, creating the Société des Pétroles Jupiter.
Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe was a co-founder of the Automobile Club de France in 1895, alongside Albert de Dion, and had a particular interest in airships and powered aircraft. He established prizes for aviation achievements, such as the Deutsch Prize of 100,000 francs in 1900 for the first flight of an "aircraft lighter than air" (airship) between Saint-Cloud and the Eiffel Tower in less than 30 minutes. In 1904, he, along with Ernest Archdeacon, awarded the Grand Prix d'Aviation for "aircraft heavier than air." He also commissioned the construction of airships Ville de Paris (1903) and Ville de Paris (1906).
In May 1911, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe was injured in an aircraft accident while attending the "Course aérienne Paris-Madrid 1911," a flight competition from Paris to Madrid. The accident caused the VIP stand to collapse, resulting in injuries to Prime Minister Ernest Monis and the death of Secretary of War Maurice Berteaux the following day.
In the same year, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe took over the aircraft manufacturer Nieuport and renamed it Société Anonyme des Établissements Nieuport. The Nieuport 11 and Nieuport 17 are considered the company's most successful designs. Later, the company merged with balloon manufacturer Astra to form Nieuport-Astra.
Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe was a member of the board of directors of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, of the Air Navigation Commission of the Ministry of Public Works and of the Air Navigation Distribution Commission.
In addition to his industrial pursuits, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe also had a passion for music and worked as a composer. One of his notable works is the opera Icare, created in 1911.