Gerard Ettinger (29 December 1909 – 30 June 2002) was the founder of the British designer and manufacturer of luxury leather goods G Ettinger Ltd, as well as a German film producer. Born on 29 December 1909 in Posen,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

(now Poland), the son of a military outfitter whose customers included the eldest son of the Kaiser and Hindenburg, Ettinger moved to Berlin with his family after the First World War. He moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

at the age of 18, then later returned to Germany, where he worked for a film company. After he was dismissed in 1933 for being Jewish, he went to first Paris, then London to compile a book profiling Europe's leading actors. In London he gained employment as an agent for German factories exporting leather and luxury goods to the UK. He set up the business that would become G Ettinger in 1934. Ettinger was briefly interned at the start of the Second World War, then worked as a radio broadcaster and translator. After the war's end he was part of a film-making team that worked to rebuild the German film industry—the team made films and rebuilt hundreds of German cinemas. On his return to London he was commissioned by

Asprey Asprey International Limited, formerly Asprey & Garrard Limited, is a United Kingdom-based designer, manufacturer and retailer of jewellery, silverware, home goods, leather goods, timepieces and a retailer of books. Asprey's flagship ret ...

to procure luxury leather goods, which were then scarce. Ettinger goods were made in London and

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, and imported from continental Europe. By the 1970s most of the firm's output was produced under contract for branded retailers such as Harrods. Ettinger continued to work until he was 91; he died at the age of 92 on 30 June 2002.

References

External links

1909 births 2002 deaths Businesspeople from London Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Film people from Poznań 20th-century English businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-1900s-stub