Josef Rudolf Katscher - Katscher in Norway

It's not hard when someone already did the work :-)

Here's his gravestone in Oslo: http://www.disnorge.no/gravminner/bilde.php?id=4763533

He's buried on what was the first Jewish burial ground in Norway; most of the (huge) burial ground has been redeveloped into a park and the graves removed, but the Jewish part has been left intact.

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofienbergparken

So next time you're in Oslo, you have the chance to go see it :-)

I entered the links into the profile in my usual style; I'll leave it up to you whether to delete the somewhat untidy information that's currently on the profile.

But is it Josef Rudolf or Rudolph Joseph?
The cecsuses and gravestone tells Rudolf Josef

There's no Josef Rudolf Katscher in Norway census records - the search function is word-based, so it finds things in either order.

So this seems to be the only candidate, and he seems to have used "Rudolph Josef".

Thank you all so much. The birth record seems to say Joseph Rudolf. See http://digi.archives.cz/da/permalink?xid=be8781ee-f13c-102f-8255-00...

But who knows?

I have to dig it up, but when my grandparents were trying to escape Austria in 1938, my grandmother wrote a letter to Norway trying to get a visa, explaining that her uncle had died there and presumably left his assets to the state. She did not get the visa, or else I guess I'd be Norwegian today. :-)

My grandmother also had another story about this uncle that turned out not to be completely true. She said he was older than my ggg-grandfather Ernst but that the mother liked Ernst better and managed to get the father's estate to Ernst, which left the brother with nothing, so he went to Norway. But it turns out Ernst was the older brother. Ernst was famously murdered on a train in 1874 and there are dozens of articles on the murder and subsequent trial (it even was used as an example in an American law textbook). See https://www.geni.com/profile/documents/6000000002765614399

Josef was quite well off in 1865, I think - the 1865 census show his occupation as "Discanteur", which I suspect is an old word for "moneylender". (How stereotypcial!)

The address book for 1879 (the oldest one for Oslo) has "Katscher, R. J" with the title "houseowner": https://www.digitalarkivet.no/db10061509057111

His 1908 gravestone is a fairly hefty monument, so by that time, he was "someone" in the community. It's not unreasonable to assume that he had an estate to leave behind.

More amusing stuff: I found a note in a book called "Akersgaten" (nb.no, Norwegian IP only :-( ) - in Akersgaten 3, the German-born pawnbroker Katcher lived here a time.
Katcher achieved fame all over Norway after an episode (that had to have happened before 1864) where two notorious murderers visited the pawnshop twice in order to kill him - but both times they were hindered by random customers coming in at the wrong (right!) moment.
After this, a local jokester decided to tease Katcher - every time they met, he'd say "This time you were lucky, mr Katcher". This irritated Katcher so much that he raised a case in court for the irritation - which he lost because the judge decided that it was quite true that he had been lucky at the time.

I can't find another Katcher in Norway at the time, so it seems to be the same one.

More literature: "The history of the Jews in Norway over 300 years" by Oskar Mendehlsson - page 280-282.

Katscher likely came in the late 1850s, and was hired as chief of alcohol production in Drammen, but moved to Oslo shoortly thereafter.
He dates the episode with the murderers to 1862 or 1863.
He didn't join the main Jewish synagogue, but a smaller one called "Adath Jeschurun".
When he died in 1908, he gave his fortune (~NOK 200.000, a lot of money at the time) to charity - creating two funds for youths' education that still exist. One of the conditions for the charities is that there shall be no consideration of the applicant's religion when handing out the money.....

I'll see if I can steal the picture of him from the book. Would be a shame not to have it!

... it's the same picture you already have on the profile. No added value to gain!

Amazing. The photo of him doesn't look much like his brother though.

Private User this will interest you, I think.

My mother used to repeat a story that her grandmother, Ida Katscher, had told her mother about visits to family in Norway, presumably to Josef Rudolf, as there is no other Katscher member of the family it could have been. The full story is not really repeatable in polite company, especially for my first contribution to a conversation on Geni, but has to do with Norwegians of that time apparently using the bathroom as a place for socialisation and how it got in the way of Viennese sensibilities.

What is perhaps most interesting about the story is that it involved female relatives in Norway. This is what prompted my memory of the story when it was mentioned in this discussion a few days ago that Joseph seems to have been a lifelong bachelor. Perhaps it is just that stories get embellished over the generations and may relate to other female friends my great-grandmother socialised with in Norway.

Incidentally there is still Norwegian jewelry in my family that comes from those same holidays.

Josef Rudolf seems to have been the only Katcher in Norway. That doesn't mean that he didn't have other relatives, just that they had different names - his mother's family?

I can certainly believe that there were culture collisions around bathrooms in Oslo in the 1850s - water closets in Oslo were actually forbidden by law until ~1910; most dwellings had a bucket in the back yard that was emptied by the "night man".

My mom found my grandmother's letter from 1938 (added the media tab on Rudolf's profile). Here's a translation:

To the honorable General Consulate of Norway in the presence of and received by the Consul in Vienna:

I allow myself to give the following information with the hope of a positive evaluation and result:

Around the middle of the previous century, the brother of my grandfather, Mr Rudolf Katscher, emigrated as a young man from his parents' home in Branek in Moravia (today Czechoslovakia) to Norway. He was able to gain a veritable fortune, remained a bachelor and when he died, he willed his entire fortune to the city of Christiania. His family did not inherit anything. As I heard, they tried to dispute the Testament, were unsuccessful and the fortune remained with the city. I can well imagine that since then, for many generations, Norwegians have received benefits and help from this fund, and it is for this reason that I am hoping that the country of Norway will certainly not leave out of consideration, when I, a distant relative of the testator, in a dire situation, plead for help and a good deed from Norway.

Since I am, as was the testator, of Jewish descent, the present circumstances and laws in my homeland make it impossible for me to practice a profession and earn a living. I ask that you consider the foregoing information and materials, and permit my entry into Norway and settlement there. I would like to add that I am married, and thus would need the authorization for 2 people, that is, for me and for my husband. With the following information, I would like to provide a description of my husband's and my life, from which you can see, that in our case it is a question of people who are worthy of the help we seek:
Dr. Gertrud Susanne Jellinek-Zeisl, born on 15/08/1906 in Vienna, went to Gymnasium as well as the University and earned a Doctorate of Law. I then was employed by one of the most esteemed legal firms of the city: Drs. Rudolf Willheim, I. Graben 29a, as a law clerk and remained there for more than 5 years. After this I took a half-day position in one of the largest art dealer's of Vienna, [unclear: Dr. Walch Goldmann], Wien I, Opernring 17, and remained there until May 15th, 1938, at which time I was let go according to the newly organized business practices. I can speak and write English perfectly, as well as French and some Italian, and also am accomplished in stenography and typewriting. I am in charge of the household myself, and am thus well-versed in household matters and finances.

My husband, Erich Zeisl, was born on May 18, 1905 in Vienna, and is a composer by profession and a teacher of piano and music theory. He has an outstanding reputation in the music world and was considered one of the strongest personalities of the young Austrian generation of composers. His works have been performed at home and abroad, to great acclaim.

We both are from respected Viennese families, and are, like our forbears, completely moral and ethical, have never been politically active or members of any political party, and we both are completely healthy and capable of working. We are convinced that through the acceptance of our entry to your country, we will be no burden on the Norwegian State.

We sincerely hope for a positive outcome and rapid processing of our request.

Dr. Gertrud S. Jellinek-Zeisl

A very moving letter Randy. Hearing a voice from the 1930s reminds me in a very personal way of what our grandparents and great grand parents went through.

Guess it also solves the interesting mystery around Josef Rudolf.

Except one small detail: The letter was never sendt since Randy's mother found it.