59 Josef Berger • Martin Ziegler: Einzelmöbel, Bimini-Werkstätten. - Reproduktion nach zeitge
nössischem Foto
shortly afterwards from a heart attack. His homeless widow foliowed him soon after.
Bimini glasses had now become collectors’ items. Amongst these was a playboy, who
every year ordered elaborately decorated wine glasses, which he smashed against a
wall having drunk in the New Year.
Fritz, reluctantly, had to accept a partner with Capital - he hated attending to the com-
mercial site of the business. The shop was duly enlarged to include ceramics and small
furniture. But the partner did not bring the hoped for enlarged profits. Frightened by
political developments he moved out of the partnership and emigrated to Palestine.
Fritz and Hilde had rented rooms in the house where the sisters Berger had their stea-
dily expanding model dress workshop. When the daily work was finished, the reception
room became a literary salon, where artist friends came for advice, inspiration, or un-
failing entertainment by Fritz, a brilliant conversationalist. Among the visitors there was
J. M. Hauer the inventor of 12-tone music, looking much out of place in his black cut-
away, complaining much about his competitor Schoenberg . . . Paul Engelmann
brought his friend Wittgenstein along. He did not open his mouth once.
Fritz continued to write poetry, started a Schubert novel, never finished, and painted
with untrained skiii and passionate invoivement, hundreds of miniature watercolours.
An impressive shop on the Stubenring, near the Museum of Arts & Crafts was now the
place where Bimini glass was made and sold with moderate success. Commercial mat-
ters and bookkeeping were looked after by Mitzi a pretty and friendly girl, while Fritz
looked after the production side and Publicity. He was woken up, rather suddenly, from
this well-settled life by the bloody fight between the government, relying on support
from fascist Italy and the secret Organisation of the Nazis preparing the ground for a
takeover. It was time, high time, to pack up not only the personal belongings, but also
