Ise Gropius Biographical Timeline

1897         Born Ilse Frank in Osterode, Germany

1912          Father loses family’s wealth and relocates household to Hannover

1913          Ise attends girls’ boarding school, returns home in 1916

1917          Becomes Red Cross nurse.

1919          Sent to England to learn to speak English

1921          Becomes engaged to Herman Frank, a distant cousin

1922          Moves to München, works at newspaper as a writer

1923          Mother dies and Ise returns to Hannover. Meets Gropius at a lecture

1923          Visits Weimar Bauhaus, breaks with fiancé, and marries Gropius

1924          Extended stay in sanatorium in Dresden to regain health

1925          Moves to new Bauhaus in Dessau

1928          Moves to Berlin after Gropius resignation from Bauhaus. Visits U.S.A.

1930          Extensive European travel with family and friends, through 1934

1934          Gropiuses leave for Rome, then London. Settle in Lawn Road Flats

1936          Hertha Frank, Ise’s sister dies. Gropiuses adopt her daughter Ati

1937          Moves to U.S.A. Rents Colonial house in Lincoln, Mass.

1938          Builds new Lincoln house on Storrow land

1944          Gropiuses become American citizens

1947          Involved in near fatal car accident.  Year-long convalescence

1954          World travel to Australia, Asia, Middle East, and Europe

1969          Walter Gropius dies. Gropius niece comes to stay in house

1973          Decides to leave the Lincoln house to Historic New England

1983          Dies on June 9 in Lexington, Mass.