Walter H. Bunzl Family Papers

Robert Max Bunzl was born near Vienna on March 15th, 1882. He married Nellie Burian in 1912 and they had a son, Walter, the following year. When the Austrian Republic became a province of Nazi Germany following the Anschluss in 1938, the family fled to London, where an English branch of the family's jewelry manufacturing company Burian and Bunzl had a branch office. After a few months, they made their way to Atlanta through Brazil. They soon helped various relatives and company employees escape Nazi Germany. The family became heavily involved in cultural affairs of the city. Mr. Bunzl was active in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Pro-Mozart Society, Atlanta Arts Alliance, Atlanta Music Club, Academy Theatre, the Temple, and the Atlanta Boy Choir. He was the Austrian consul general for the Southeast and was honorary dean of the consular corps in Atlanta. At the age of 92, Mr. Bunzl left Atlanta to make a home in his native Austria. He died there at the age of 94 in 1977. Walter Bunzl later became Atlanta's honorary Consul General to Austria, and died in 1988 at the age of 75. His wife, Frances Hamburger Bunzl, a native of Germany born in 1920, came to Atlanta in 1941. During their married life, Walter and Frances Bunzl were active in the worlds of art and culture and were founding members of Temple Sinai. Frances Bunzl passed away on August 15, 2019 in Atlanta. She was 99 years old.