Elisabeth Trump | |
|---|---|
 Trump in 1902 | |
| Born | Elisabeth Christ (1880-10-10)October 10, 1880 Kallstadt, Kingdom of Bavaria |
| Died | June 6, 1966(1966-06-06) (aged 85) Manhasset, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | All Faiths Cemetery |
| Citizenship |
|
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingFred andJohn |
| Family | Trump family |
Elisabeth Trump (née Christ;German:[eˈliːzabɛtkʁɪst]; October 10, 1880 – June 6, 1966) was a German and American businesswoman. In 1902, she marriedFrederick Trump, who died in 1918. After his death, she co-founded the real estate development companyE. Trump & Son with their son,Fred, to manage and increase their real estate holdings. Through Fred, she was the paternal grandmother ofDonald Trump, the 45th and 47thpresident of the United States.
Elisabeth Christ was born inKallstadt, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire, the daughter of Philipp Christ and Anna Maria (née Anthon).[1] The family owned a smallvineyard. However, the income provided by that was not adequate to meet their needs, and Philipp Christ worked as atinker repairing and polishing old utensils and selling pots and pans. He ran his trade from his house on Freinsheimer Strasse in Kallstadt, which was just across the street from the home of Katharina Trump, an elderly widow who lived with her six children, including Frederick.[2]
Katharina Trump's son,Frederick Trump, emigrated to North America in 1885 at the age of 16 and made his fortune with restaurants andbrothels in theKlondike Gold Rush in northwest Canada. When he returned to Germany in 1901, he wooed Elisabeth over the objections of his mother, who felt that her prosperous son could and should find a bride from a wealthier and more refined family than that of Elisabeth.
Nonetheless, Frederick and Elisabeth married on 26 August 1902.[2] He was 33 years of age at the time and she was 21. Friedrich and Elisabeth moved to New York and they set up house in an apartment in the predominantly German quarter ofMorrisania inthe Bronx. Elisabeth (as her name was spelled in the United States) kept house, while Frederick worked as barber and manager of a restaurant-hotel. Their first child, Elisabeth, was born on April 30, 1904.[2]
Despite living in a German neighborhood, Elisabeth was homesick. The family returned to Kallstadt in 1904, selling their assets in America. As the Bavarian authorities suspected he had left Germany to avoid conscripted service in theImperial Army, Frederick could not remain in Germany, so the family returned to the United States in 1905.[2]
Their second child,Fred, was born, and they set up house on 177th Street in the Bronx. After Elisabeth gave birth to her third child,John, the family moved toQueens, where Frederick began to develop real estate. In 1918, he died ofinfluenza during the1918 flu pandemic, leaving an estate valued at $31,359 (or approximately equivalent to $432,885 in 2024).[3]
Trump was considered the matriarch of theTrump family.[4] She remained close to her son Fred for her entire life.[2]
Following the death of her husband, Elisabeth Trump continued the real estate business he had begun. She had contractors build houses on the empty lots Frederick had owned, sold the houses, and earned income off the mortgages she provided to buyers. Her vision was to have her three children continue the family business.[2] Initially, she operated under the ungendered name "E. Trump".[5][6] In 1924, she switched to "E. Trump & Son" for advertising purposes,[7] then "Sons",[8] then back to the singular when it became clear that only her first son, Fred, would join. In later interviews, Fred tended to put himself center stage, saying that he had always dreamt of being a builder; that he completed his first house in 1924, just one year out of high school; and that his mother only got involved because she was old enough to "sign checks".[9] But there are indications that Fred actually started more slowly[10] and Elisabeth contributed more, including capital.[11][12] When the business was formally incorporated, in 1927, Fred was old enough to sign checks, but "E. Trump & Son" remained the name.[13] "It was no misnomer," wrote biographerWayne Barrett, "she was intimately involved in the business."[14]
Elisabeth Trump stayed involved in the family business throughout her life. In her 70s, she allegedly collected coins from thelaundromats in Trump buildings.[2] (Trump family biographerGwenda Blair heard this from Elisabeth's grandchildren.)[15] The collection of coins from the laundromat has also been associated with others in the family.Harry Hurt III states thatMary Trump, the wife of Elisabeth's son Fred, "drove back and forth between her husband's apartment projects in a Rolls-Royce, collecting coins from the washing machines in the laundry rooms",[16] and duringhis 2016 presidential campaign, Elisabeth's grandsonDonald Trump told a crowd inStaten Island that he had spent "probably five" boyhood summers there collecting coins from his father's laundry machines.[17]
When [Fred Trump] was 27 years old he started his first small home building job on his own, but with some financial backing from his mother.(subscription required)
E. Trump & Son Company, Inc., of Jamaica, has been formed with $50,000 capital to deal in realty.