1929 Triumph Klein-Triumph #76856
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Created: 01-08-2021 at 11:39AM
Last Edit: 01-23-2024 at 01:11PM
Description:
In March, 2020--just prior to the Covid shutdowns--I replied to an ad for this 1929 Triumph model 1 in the Souderton, Pennsylvania area. A young woman was selling it on behalf of her German grandmother. So I called the grandmother to set up a time to purchase the machine. We sat and spoke over tea for well over an hour. This is the story she told me: this was the typewriter owned by her first husband, Wilhelm "Willie" Mueller, of Nuremberg. He was a pacifist, poet, and music teacher. Only near the end of the war, in 1944/45--when the Nazis needed every warm body they had--was Mueller forcibly conscripted into the German military. He was shipped off to the Eastern Front, where he was wounded. After the war, she was forcibly expatriated from the Sudetenland. She was told she had only 18 hours to prepare, and she was being deported. She could only take what she could carry, and that included the Triumph typewriter. She returned to Bavaria, which was in the American sector of occupation. Eventually, she re-married a captain on seagoing transportation ships. They had a relatively comfortable life, and emigrated to the United States in 1961, again bringing the typewriter with them. It is only now that her children and grandchildren had no interest in the machine that she was willing to let it pass into my hands. And I am grateful for that.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Mark Schrad's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 33602
Professor of Political Science and Director of Russian Area Studies at Villanova University. Writes about alcohol politics, Russia, and international law when not refurbishing old typewriters.
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Triumph Klein-Triumph on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Triumph Serial Number page and the Triumph Klein-Triumph By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.