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Käthe Beutler, née Italiener, (b. Nov. 10, 1896, d. July 2, 1999)  was a Jewish pediatrician, born in Berlin, Germany. In 1935, following the consolidation of Nazi rule, Käthe and her husband Alfred David Beutler (b. Nov. 11, 1891, d. Feb. 13, 1962), along with their three children, emigrated to the United States, where they became naturalized citizens. Among the children was Ernst Beutler (later Ernest Beutler), who became a noted hematologist and biomedical scientist. He, in turn, was the father of Bruce Beutler, an immunologist and geneticist, and co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Both Ernest and Bruce wrote of Käthe as an influential figure in their lives <, >. She was posthumously honored in 2019, when a building was named for her on the campus of the Charité hospital in Berlin, where she had studied medicine.

Early life and family background
Käthe was the daughter of Ludwig Italiener (1855-1941) and Anna Italiener née Rothstein (1864-1928). Her early years occupied a period of relative calm and prosperity for German Jews. Her close family included several individuals of historical note.

Her father’s cousin Carl Fürstenberg was a prominent banker with access to Kaiser Wilhelm II. At one time, Käthe’s father and Fürstenberg were close friends. However, Fürstenberg had married into a gentile family, and had mostly severed relations with his own family. According to Käthe’s recollection, Ludwig Italiener believed the Kaiser enjoyed Fürstenberg’s company because the latter amused him with his extensive repertoire of Jewish jokes < memoirs? >. Ludwig, for his part, was embittered by his cousin’s behavior < memoirs of Käthe Beutler >.

Käthe’s maternal uncle  was the director of the Russian-Chinese Bank, a powerful financier, and a confidant of Czar Nicholas II of Russia.

Alexander Werth (1901-1969), a well-known journalist and war correspondent, born in Russia and subsequently a naturalized British citizen, was the illegitimate son of Adolf Rothstein, and as such, was a first cousin of Käthe. However, there is no record of the two meeting one another.

Another of Käthe’s uncles, by marriage to her aunt Ida Rothstein (b., d.  ), was Raphael Löwenfeld (b. 1854, d. 1910). Löwenfeld translated the works of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy into German, and was Tolstoy’s first biographer. Löwenfeld was also a lecturer in Slavonic languages at Breslau University and a founding member of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith. He initiated and managed the original ensemble of the Schiller Theater in Berlin.

The violin prodigy Szymon Goldberg (b. 1909, d. 1993), a polish-born Jew who became concertmaster of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra (1924-1929) and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1930-1934) and later a refugee from Nazi Germany, was a close friend of Käthe and her family. Goldberg moved from Warsaw to Berlin at the age of eight and lived with the Italieners when Käthe was in her early 20s. She was, at the time, surprised that his musical ability far surpassed her own, notwithstanding the fact that he was still a child. About a decade later, as a young adult, Goldberg gave violin lessons to Ernst Beutler, then about five years old.

Anna Italiener (like Käthe herself) was known to love the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Although Jewish, she sang Bach’s choral works in a Berlin church choir. To Käthe’s recollection, her mother remarked that the music was “so beautiful it almost makes me wish I were a Christian.” Anna died of colon cancer in 1928, while Ludwig lived in Berlin until 1941, where he died of unknown causes at a Jewish home for the aged.

Ludwig’s older brother, Julius Italiener, had married Anna’s sister, Hedwig Rothstein. During her early years, Käthe recalled her cousins from this marriage, who lived nearby, as being “like siblings”. Her actual siblings were two older brothers: Karl Italiener (b. 1889) and Ernst Italiener (b. 1894).

Ernst, to whom she was extremely close as a child, was killed in action in the First World War at the age of 23, on Oct. 2, 1916. He and his comrades were buried alive under a direct hit to their bunker. A connoisseur of music and theater who played both the piano and cello well, Ernst had been a pacifist who hated war in principle, and loathed his own experience in the German army. He could not understand how anyone could start a war. Käthe was deeply aggrieved by his death, which she regarded as particularly ironic and unfair, and spoke of it with lamentation many decades later.

Karl, at the age of 25, had travelled to the United States prior to the outbreak of WWI. He attempted to return to Germany after hostilities commenced in 1914. His ship, the neutral Dutch liner “Nieuw Amsterdam,” was intercepted by the French navy on September 2, 1914, and he was interned in a civilian prison camp (at Ile Longue, near Brest) for the duration of the war. He was known to have been a Freemason, and to have organized musical and theatrical events for the other inmates < email of Bernard Jacquet >. Self-employed after the First World War as an efficiency expert, he kept an office in Berlin until Hitler came to power; then emigrated to England, but took up residence in Amsterdam prior to the outbreak of WWII. Soon after the Germans occupied the Netherlands, he presented himself to a police station in response to a summons, despite warnings from friends that he ought to go into hiding. He was deported to Germany and eventually murdered at Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. His wife, Wilhelmina, who had a history of mental instability < >, was murdered separately by the Nazi euthanasia program <  >.

Medical training
In 1933, approximately 50% of all pediatricians in Germany were Jewish, and approximately a third of them were women. Käthe was trained as a physician at the Charité hospital (__ to __). Her exact reasons for pursuing a career in medicine are not clearly recalled by any of the members of her family who knew her well, and her memoirs are silent on the question. At least part of her motivation for work in pediatrics was aesthetic: she enjoyed work with children, and saw greater potential to help children as compared with adults. To Bruce Beutler, she once summarized, “A child is more aesthetic than, for example, an old woman.” She also spoke of the challenge of diagnosing disease in small children who couldn’t communicate, comparing this situation to the problem of diagnosis in veterinary medicine.

Her thesis, on the subject of “tonus” (muscle tone), was reviewed by H. Finkelstein, and A. Czerny one of the developers of infant formulas. She mentioned this work to Bruce Beutler, although the extent of her involvement remains uncertain. First training position (p.11) Worked with Pick (of Niemann Pick disease) in Pathology for about a year.

Acquaintance with Magda Quandt (later Magda Goebbels)
During the 1920s, Käthe Beutler was the pediatrician of Harald Quandt (b. 1921; d. 1967), the child of German industrialist Günther Quandt and Magda Quandt, née Magdalena Behrend Ritschel (later Magda Goebbels, wife of the German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The younger Quandt was heir to a great fortune upon the death of his father in 1954.  This included a substantial percentage ownership of the German automotive company BMW.  Bruce Beutler recalls her first realization that Harald Quandt had survived the WWII, which occurred when she read newspaper accounts of his death in an aviation accident .  Prior to that, she had assumed Harald had perished in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery along with the children of Joseph and Magda Goebbels.  Of Magda, Käthe commented that she had been an “elegant woman, very pleasant prior to her relationship with Joseph Goebbels,” with whom she began a romance in 1931. From about that time forward, Käthe was no longer entrusted with Harald’s care.

Marriage and family life
On Dec. 23, 1925, Käthe Italiener married a physician, Alfred David Beutler (b. November 11, 1891, d. Feb 13, 1962). Nothing is known as to how the couple met, nor any details of their romance.

Alfred was born in Reichenbach, the son of textile factory owner Joseph Beutler and Elizabeth Beutler, née Finder. His medical studies were interrupted by WWI, during which he served as an assistant battlefield physician (first as Feldlunterarzt and then as Feldhilfsarzt). He saw action in five battles between 1915 and 1917 (at Yser, Wytschadtebogan, Arras, and Artois). He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on June 17, 1916, and later the Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer (Honor Cross for Fighters on the Front Lines), on August 30, 1935. According to Ernest Beutler, he was always reluctant to discuss his war experiences thereafter. Alfred completed his medical studies at Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau, between November of 1918 and April of 1919. He received his Doctorate of Medicine and Surgery, Magna Cum Laude, on April 10, 1920. Thereafter, he worked as an Assistant at the Pathologischen Institut der Universität Breslau, 1919-1923.

Three children were born over a six-year period: Frederick J. Beutler (b. October 3, 1926); Ernst (later Ernest) Beutler (b. September 30, 1928, d. October 5, 2008), and Ruth Beutler (b. November 23, 1932, d. July 14, 1993). Käthe continued her medical practice in Berlin during this period. The practice was located at 2 Reichkanzlerplatz (later Adolf Hitler Platz; now Theodor Heuss Platz). The family residence was at one point in the same building as the practice, and at another point, a few blocks removed from the practice. From 1933-1935, immediately prior to their departure from Germany, the family moved to Eichkamp, a leafy suburban district of Berlin, residing at Am Vogelherd 28.

Particularly after 1933, Käthe endured growing institutionalized discrimination against Jews. At one point, the mother of one of her patients accosted her in the street and informed her that she would no longer bring her child to see her because she was Jewish, and to do so would be a violation of the law. In her memoirs, Käthe mentioned this as the moment in which she decided it was time to leave Germany < >.

Indeed, the decision to emigrate was driven primarily by Käthe. Checked out many countries; copy of Alfred Beutler’s passport available showing visits to Italy, Switzerland, other countries. Two possibilities presented themselves: emigration to the United States or to Palestine, then under British mandate. The decision to settle in the United States was made by Alfred, and sometimes regretted by Käthe in subsequent years. This was because she had missed a chance to participate in the development of the new state of Israel. At the same time, she was grateful that her children did not need to fight in the wars Israel experienced. An affidavit attesting to financial responsibility for the immigrants was required for emigration to the United States, and was provided by the Kargers [names, dates], who were cousins of Alfred < from brief description of immigration by K Beutler>. Fear of not passing exam led to second thoughts; “let’s go to Palestine.” But he passed and they stayed in US.

Emigration to the United States
In 1935, Käthe and her children boarded a train bound for Switzerland. Because all of the family’s property was to be confiscated by the German Reich, she had contracted with an agency to smuggle several thousand Deutschmarks out of the country illegally. For this reason, she was particularly tense at the border crossing. However, the four of them escaped Germany without incident. They subsequently travelled to the French port city of Cherbourg, and boarded the RMS Aquitania (a Cunard liner, and a sister ship of the better-known RMS Lusitania). They crossed the Atlantic, entering the United States via the port of New York. The family settled in Milwaukee, WI, where Alfred was already awaiting them.

Alfred had earlier travelled to Palestine but was disappointed by a perceived lack of employment opportunity for physicians. He had, during the voyage back to __, treated a patient who had become ill on board the ship. This man, Mr. ___, had informed him that he had a brother in Milwaukee who would help to get him settled. Averse to life in a large foreign city, he settled in Milwaukee with the help of this brother, Mr. ___, prior to the arrival of Käthe and the children < odyssey to America >. He soon passed the requisite medical licensure examination, and was granted a license to practice medicine in 1936. He specialized in internal medicine for the rest of his life. Kargers also donated to the hospital where Alfred worked.

After Alfred’s death from a sudden cardiac arrest on February 13, 1962, Käthe moved to ___ in Sierra Madre, CA, where she lived in close proximity to her son Ernest Beutler and his family in the neighboring town of Arcadia, CA, for a period of ___ years. In __, she moved to 531 Beloit Avenue, in Kensington, CA, to be closer to her daughter Ruth and her children, who lived in neighboring Berkeley, CA. Her daughter became increasingly disabled from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, and died in 1993. In November, 1993, she moved again, to __ Prospect Blvd. in La Jolla, CA, living in proximity to Ernest Beutler and members of his branch of the family once more. She remained in La Jolla, living in a state of relative independence until her death nearly six years later.

Efforts on behalf of German Jews
With forty other Jewish refugees in Milwaukee, Alfred Beutler founded the Gesellschaft der Freunde (Society of Friends), to help Jewish refugees assimilate into American society. This organization was renamed the New Home Club. Alfred served as President from the inception of the organization in 1937 until 1940. Käthe and Alfred also provided the requisite affidavits for numerous Jewish refugees from Germany.

Character and world view
Despite the fact that she was born and acculturated in Germany, Käthe Beutler corrected those who referred to her as a German, pointing out that she was not a German, but a Jew. Although a lifelong atheist, she identified with Jews because she had been excluded from the society of gentiles during the first forty years of her life, spent in Germany. This experience comported with her view of the Jews as a people apart, and a nation displaced, making her strongly sympathetic to the Zionist cause. Although grievously victimized by the Nazi state, which had taken her livelihood, home, brother, and other relatives and friends, she was, in her later years, inclined to be open-minded about Germany itself. During the 1980s she visited Berlin at the invitation of the city government and returned with the summary comment, “One cannot blame the younger generation” .

Käthe was politically left-leaning throughout her life. Educated in the classics, well read, and closely attentive to national and international politics, she had strong opinions about events of the day. She remained conversant with modern trends and technologies, traded actively on the stock market in her old age, and made use of email for correspondence when this medium of communication became available.

Honesty, even to the point of tactlessness, was a dominant aspect of her personality, as were fairness and punctuality. She faced harsh realities with clear-eyed realism. While not humorless, she was critical of “silliness,” and sometimes showed impatience with other adults. Her children recalled her as a strict disciplinarian. Paradoxically, she was exceptionally patient with her grandchildren, whose company she clearly enjoyed. All of her grandchildren recalled her ability to spend many hours at play with them in chess, other board games, and card games. She played the piano proficiently with a repertoire that emphasized Bach, was an excellent sight-reader of sheet music, and gave piano lessons to neighborhood children during her 70s and 80s. In her later years, she developed a taste for the music of Mahler. She was fond of dogs, and usually had one in her home.

Illness and death
Notwithstanding her knowledge of the damaging effects of tobacco, Käthe Beutler was a heavy consumer of cigarettes for much of her life. Her grandchildren recall that she smoked Benson and Hedges cigarettes in the 1960s, and thereafter, True cigarettes. Only in her eighth decade of life did she abruptly stop smoking. Tobacco use may have contributed to a small stroke she suffered during the early 1980s, an internal capsule lesion that resolved with no obvious residuum. Otherwise, she was generally quite healthy until the tenth decade of life. In her mid 90s, she became severely anemic due to erythropoietic failure. This manifested itself in sudden, unexpected cardiac failure. She was rescued from this acute crisis with medical treatment including transfusion, and subsequently was treated with erythropoietin, then a rather new drug. A technological advance introduced only a few years previously thus made it possible for her to live for several additional years. However, severe osteoarthritis, along with gradual loss of hearing and sight, made her final years a misery. She died at her home in La Jolla, California at the age of 102.

The pedigree and memoirs of Käthe Beutler
Endowed with a prodigious memory for birthdates and for members of her own family, Käthe Beutler produced a foundational pedigree from memory, along with a rather brief memoir of her life. The pedigree was enlarged by genealogic studies overseen by her son Frederick J. Beutler, encompassing the Beutler, Finder, Rothstein, and Italiener families. Her knowledge of rather remote family relationships led her to introduce Bruce Beutler and Pamela Ronald to one another, as she knew that they were third cousins, both descendants of Julius Rothstein and Frumet (Fanny) Frank (her maternal grandparents), and that both were biologists. The Ronald (originally Rosenthal) family had also emigrated to the United States as refugees from Nazi Germany. Remarkably, Bruce Beutler and Pamela Ronald had independently become distinguished investigators in the field of innate immunity, the former studying mammals and the latter studying plants. They eventually published a review together, summarizing the related fields of plant and animal immunity

Käthe Beutler is survived by one of her children (Frederick Beutler, in Ann Arbor, MI), ten grandchildren, twelve great grandchildren, one great great grandchild. Most of these descendants reside in the United States. Several have dual citizenship (USA and Germany).