KRAU Elise

Elisabeth KRAU was born in 1857 in Luxembourg-city, 39 Thionville-Gasse (Diedenhofenerstrasse). Her father Pierre KRAU was a Weissgerber and later became a fabricant de gants.
When Pierre KRAU retired in 1895 he bought the Château de Differdange and in 1898, when he died, the property passed on to his daughter Elise KRAU.
The 1900 Differdange Census shows that Elise and her mother Agnès SCHMIDT were living in the Château and that Elise was “Rentnerin, führt Haushalt, Eigenthümer“.
In 1901 Elise, at the age of 44, married Emile WIRTH, aged 28. The latter was born in Luxembourg and his occupation was Offizier der englischen Marine (British merchant navy officer). The marriage, however, was short-lived and was dissolved, upon Elise’s request, by a Court decision in 1906.
Elise’s mother Agnès SCHMIDT died shortly after, in 1907.
This must have been the moment when Elise KRAU started her own business in the clothing sector by launching the company “E. J. Krau & Cie”.
In October 1910 the company took part in the Exposition Internationale et Universelle in Bruxelles presenting “articles de Paris“. It earned a “mention honorable“.
At about the same time the company started advertising its latest creations and inventions in the following terms:

Dernière nouveauté
relève-pantalon, fixe manchettes, relève jupe
Système E. J. Krau & Cie à Differdange
en vente dans les magasin d’articles de blanc et de mercerie
Neu! Neu! Neu!
Hosenschoner, Manschettenhalter, Rockraffer
System E. J. Krau & Cie, Differdange
Zu haben in den Kurz- und Weisswaren-Gschäften

Elise died in 1920 and the Château de Differdange was sold by auction to the local notary REIFFERS in 1922.
It may of be interest to point out that the well-known mercerie in Luxembourg-city by the name of KRAU-HARTMANN (emblematic shop which closed in 2016) was run by Jean Pierre KRAU (b. 1861), a cousin of Elise KRAU.

FamilySearch database (GKZJ-J89)