Correspondence of Judita Sendrei's father, Matija Bruck

This letter, dated 1926, must be part of my father's correspondence with the firm EDE HAEN from Hanover in connection with father's COSAN patent for protecting weak grapevines. After graduation, my father went to Berlin and enrolled in medical school. However, during the first anatomy class, even before dissecting the corpse, he fainted. He quickly realized that medicine was not for him and he transferred to the chemistry department. During the days he gave classes and tutored children, and in the evenings he studied. After graduating from the university, he found work. But before that, he noticed that the grapevines on his father's small parcel of land produced very weak grapes. Experimenting in the different laboratories where he worked part-time to gain experience, he invented a material for protecting grapevines. He did not have enough money to pay for registering the patent, so he went into partnership with a friend who financed his project and with whom he later shared the dividends equally. He received the dividends continuously until 1934. With the arrival of Hitler the dividends were discontinued. From the dividends he bought a 30-hectare vineyard in the Backa vineyards, a house in Belgrade on Sava Kovacevic Street (with 14 apartments) and a villa in Palic, where we spent our vacations. He was a great lover of Palestine and he went there for the first time in 1934. He was a socialist at heart. Upon his return from Palestine, with great animation he told us of his impressions, especially about kibbutzim which he liked very much.