MAK

Volltext: Lampengeblasenes Glas aus Wien

what iittle could be salvaged from the dressmaker workshop, which, in its steady as- 
cent had finally established itself in a beautiful Baroque Palace in the very centre of 
Vienna. 
Fritz went to join the queue of alarmed Jews who hoped to emigrate to England. The 
interviews were searching. The applicants were grilled as to their financial Position, 
their qualifications and abilities as well as possible guarantors for them. For the En- 
glish, it was not a humanitarian rescue Operation but a Chance to bring new talent into 
the country. Fritz took a few samples of Bimini glasses and photos of model dresses. 
“Those are the sort of things we want in England,” said the interviewing lady. “Crafts- 
men, not merchants, of which we have enough.” Visas were issued forthwith. 
Suddenly, in Vienna, people stopped trusting anybody. The secret Nazi Organisation 
had penetrated and poisoned the community like an infectious desease. Fritz decided 
not to teil even Frl. Mitzi, his faithful assistant for many years, of his decision to leave. 
She could have had a friend who was a secret Nazi. 
And so he dispatched the basic furniture to England and, with Hilde, took the train to 
the West. 
What a shock it must have been for Frl. Mitzi when she opened the shop on Monday 
morning and found herseif in Charge of a ghost business, a body without a soul. I now 
know that she gave many Bimini glasses to the Museum of Applied Arts, whose curator 
was a great admirer of them. 
ORPLID 
Orplid thou art my land 
that far outshines 
From sea and sunny sands arising 
The clouds caress the cheeks of gods. 
Wafers, age-old, arise, 
rejuvenated round Thy hips 
And Kings bow down to you 
Who want to be your serfs. 
E. Mörike 
The Iittle flowerpot, the Bimini trade mark, was still protected and Fritz gladly had a 
new one registered to comply with British requirements. A small empty house was 
rented in Soho. Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich took the top floor to produce lithoqraphs. I took 
one to make model furniture and Fritz took the other two floors to install Orplid. With 
the danger of war increasing the economic prospects darkened. The playboy of Vienna 
turned up and offered Capital and partnership, which were reluctantly accepted. Yet 
the war brought unexpected prosperity for Orplid. The import of glass jewellery for the 
fashion industry, which had come nearly entirely from Czechoslovakia, had been in- 
terrupted. Orplid stepped in, to meet requirements which seemed as pressing as those 
for ammunition. 
Fritz acquired from the British Museum plastercopies of antique coins, cameos and Or 
naments and began to use them for buttons, earrings, brooches etc. by pressing mol- 
ten glass into the negatives, using gilding and coloured glass to bring them alive. This 
work needed iittle skill and one found in his workshop unemployable literati melting 
glass while discussing art and politics. 
At this moment there arose from the gutter press a cry for the internment of all refu- 
gees, as they did not want to countenance the disasters of the British and French ar- 
mies as being due to the ineptitude of their generals. The fifth column was invented, 
refugees from the Nazis, supporting their Nazi enemies from the rear of the British and 
French armies. While Fritz was sent to the Isle of Man, his partner, following the advice 
of his solicitor, disappeared from his address for a few months, and was not then 
further molested by the police. He now attended to the business of Orplid. 
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