Gustav Schrotter was born May 28, 1901 in Vienna, Austria. His father, Karl Schrotter, was born in 1872 in Austria of Jewish ancestry. His mother, Mathilda Löwy, was also born in 1872 in Austria of Jewish ancestry. His parents married in 1895 and had three children, Lilli (b.1880), Gustav (b.1882), and Käthe (b. 1892). The father worked as a Jeweler. The family lived at 1020 Vienna, 14 Czerningasse.
In 1935 his father died at the age of sixty-three.
Gustav Schrotter worked as a bookkeeper. It is not known where he studied art, but Vienna has several excellent art schools, such as the Academy of Applied Art Vienna and the Graphic Training and Research Institute (Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt).
Gustav Schrotter married his wife Marie Schrotter. She was born in 1896 in Tessowitz, Czechoslovakia. They did not have any children.
In 1938 the Nazi government of Germany annexed Austria and imposed intolerable restrictions on Jewish citizens. The Schrotter family was prosperous enough to acquire permission to leave Austria. They found temporary sanctuary in England, where they lived with a relative, Gerta Löwy, at 51 Avenell Road in London.
On March 4, 1940 Gustav and Marie Schrotter received legal permission to emigrate to America. They sailed to New York City on the steam ship Scythia from Liverpool. At first they lived with a friend, Shirley Albert, a dress buyer for a department store, and her husband, Henry Albert, a lawyer in private practice. They lived in Flushing, Queens, at 146-05 Cherry Avenue.
Within a few weeks Gustav and Marie Schrotter moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, where he worked as a bookkeeper and lived at 184 North Main Street.
One month later on April 1, 1940 his elderly widowed mother, Mathilda Schrotter, also received permission to leave England and follow him to America. She sailed from Liverpool to New York City with her two daughters, Lilli and Käthe, as well as her niece and nephew, Irma and Paul Löwy. The family settled in the Bronx at 2411 Valentine Avenue.
By 1941 Gustav and Marie Schrotter left Connecticut and moved to NYC, where they lived at 164-03 89th Avenue in Queens.
In 1942 Gustav Schrotter began to work freelance drawing features for comic books produced by Lloyd Jacquet of Funnies Incorporated at 49 West 45th Street in Manhattan.
In 1944 Gustav Schrotter was listed in the NYC Telephone Directory at an office in mid-town Manhattan at 9 West 46th Street. This was the exact same office address of Ruth A. Roche, a long term associate, editor and Business Manager of Samuel M. Iger. Gustav Schrotter kept this office listing for the next five years. These were the same five years that he worked for the Iger Studio, which produced material for client publishers, such as Fiction House and Fox Comics.
On June 4, 1945 Gustav Schrotter and his wife became Naturalized Alien Citizens of the United States of America.
Gustav Schrotter became a successful illustrator of educational books for young readers, such as You and Your Senses (1956), Noah Carr, Yankee Firebrand (1957), River Showfolks (1957), Comets (1957), Shooting Stars (1958), Your Heart and How it Works (1959), Discovering Dinosaurs (1960), Marilda and the Bird of Time (1960), Robert Koch, Bacteriologist (1961), The Universe (1961), Express to the Stars (1961), Robert Boyle, Chemist (1962), The First Independence Day (1962), Let's Go to the F.B.I. (1962), Understanding Light (1962), Volcanoes in Action (1962), and Abraham Lincoln (1964).
In 1966 he retired from illustration and moved with his wife back to Austria, where they lived in comfort at 262 Vienna, Schoenbrunnerstrasse.
In 1971 Gustav Schrotter suffered from heart trouble and became a patient at the Hanusch-Krankenhaus at 30 Heinrich Collin-strasse in Vienna.
Gustav Schrotter died of a heart attack in Vienna at the age of seventy on June 25, 1971.
© David Saunders 2015 |
