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'{{short description|German-American businesswoman and paternal grandmother to Donald Trump}} {{Infobox person | name = Elizabeth Trump | image = Elisabeth_Christ.jpg | caption = | birth_name = Elisabeth Christ | birth_date = {{birth date|1880|10|10|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Kallstadt]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria]], [[German Empire]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1966|6|6|1880|10|10|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Manhasset, New York|Manhasset]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States | known_for = | alma mater = | spouse = {{marriage|[[Frederick Trump]]|August 26, 1902|May 27, 1918|end=died}} | children = Elizabeth, [[Fred Trump|Fred]], and [[John G. Trump|John]] | parents = Philipp Christ<br/>Marie Anthon<ref name="Blair1">{{cite book|first=Gwenda|last=Blair|title=[[The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire]]|publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]]|location=New York City|date=2000|ISBN=978-0743210799}}</ref> | occupation = Real estate developer | nationality = German | citizenship = }} '''Elizabeth Christ Trump''' (''née'' '''Christ'''; October 10, 1880 – June 6, 1966) was a German businesswoman and is considered the matriarch of the [[Trump family]]. She married [[Frederick Trump]] in 1902. While raising their three children, the early death of her husband in 1918 required the 37-year-old widow to manage their properties. She founded the real estate development company [[The Trump Organization|E. Trump & Son]] with her son, [[Fred Trump]].<ref name="Blair1"/> Trump's grandson, [[Donald Trump]] is [[President of the United States]]. ==Early life== Elizabeth Trump was born as Elisabeth Christ in [[Kallstadt]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria]], the daughter of Philipp Christ by his wife Anna Maria Christ (née Anthon).<ref>[http://www.rheinpfalz.de/lokal/bad-duerkheim/artikel/trumps-vorfahren/ List of Donald Trump's ancestors from his father's side], [http://www.rheinpfalz.de/nachrichten/titelseite/artikel/trumps-cousins-ueber-acht-ecken/ created by] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108215010/http://www.rheinpfalz.de/nachrichten/titelseite/artikel/trumps-cousins-ueber-acht-ecken/ |date=2017-01-08 }} Johannes Steiniger</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geni.com/people/Anna-Christ/6000000035876804616|title=Anna Marie Christ|website=geni_family_tree}}</ref> While the family owned a little vineyard, the income from that was not adequate to meet their needs, and Philipp Christ worked as a [[tinker]] 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 the Trump family, where Katharina Trump, an elderly widow, lived with her six children.<ref name=Blair1/> ==Marriage and family== [[File:Elisabeth Christ & Friedrich Trump.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Christ Trump & [[Frederick Trump]], c. 1918]] Katharina Trump's son, [[Frederick Drumpf|Frederick Trump]], had immigrated to America in 1885 at the age of 16 and made his fortune with restaurants and brothels in the [[Klondike Gold Rush]]. 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 Elisabeth's. Nonetheless, Friedrich proposed to Elisabeth, who accepted, and they were married on 26 August 1902.<ref name=Blair1/> 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 of [[Morrisania]] in [[the Bronx]]. Elizabeth (as her name was spelled in the United States) kept house, while Frederick worked as a restaurant and hotel manager. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born on April 30, 1904.<ref name=Blair1/> Despite living in a German neighborhood, Elizabeth was homesick. The family returned to Kallstadt in 1904, selling their assets in America. Because the Bavarian authorities suspected that he had left Germany in order to avoid the service in the [[German Army (German Empire)|Imperial Army]], Frederick could not remain in Germany, so the family returned to the United States in 1905.<ref name=Blair1/> Their second child, [[Fred Trump|Fred]], was born, and they set up house on 177th Street in the Bronx. After Elizabeth gave birth to her third child, [[John G. Trump|John]], the family moved to [[Queens]], where Frederick began to develop real estate. In 1918, he died of [[influenza]] during the [[1918 flu pandemic]], leaving an estate valued at $31,359 (or approximately $345,000 in 1999 dollars).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gothamcenter.org/1/post/2018/02/friedrich-trump-establishes-a-dynasty.html|title=Friedrich Trump Establishes a Dynasty|website=The Gotham Center for New York City History }}</ref> Trump was considered the [[matriarch]] of the Trump family.<ref name = "Barrett">Wayne Barrett. ''[https://archive.org/details/trumpdealsdownfa00barr Trump: The Deals and the Downfall]''. HarperCollins, 1992.</ref> She remained close to her son Fred for her entire life.<ref name=Blair1/> ==E. Trump & Son== Following the untimely death of her husband, Elizabeth Trump continued the real estate business he had begun. She displayed a "remarkable talent" for keeping the real estate business going. She had contractors build houses on the empty lots Frederick had owned, sold the houses, and lived off of the mortgage payments. Her vision was to have her three children continue the family business.<ref name="Blair1" /> Her middle child, [[Fred Trump]], began construction of his first house in 1923, soon after graduating high school.<ref name="whitman">{{cite news|title=A builder looks back&nbsp;– and moves forward|newspaper=New York Times|first=Alden|last=Whitman|date=January 28, 1973|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/28/archives/a-builder-looks-backand-moves-forward-builder-looks-back-but-moves.html|accessdate=October 8, 2018}}</ref> Elizabeth partially financed Fred's houses,<ref>{{cite news|title=Biggest one-man building show|newspaper=American Builder and Building Age|first=Joseph B.|last=Mason|date=December 1, 1940|quote=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.|id={{ProQuest|853825839}}}} {{subscription required|via=ProQuest}}</ref> and held the business in her name because Fred had not reached the [[age of majority]].<ref name=whitman /> They did business as "E. Trump & Son", building hundreds of houses in Queens over the next several years.<ref>{{cite book|title=Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention|first=Wayne|last=Barrett|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|location=New York City|year=2016|page=63|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ZQ_9CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT63|isbn=978-1942872979}}</ref> The company was [[Incorporation (business)|incorporated]] in 1927,<ref>{{cite news|title=New concerns function with Queens capital|newspaper=[[The Daily Star]]|date=April 16, 1927|page=16|quote=E. Trump & Son Company, Inc., of Jamaica, has been formed with $50,000 capital to deal in realty.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=New Concerns Function with Queens Capital|work=[[The Daily Star]]|date=April 16, 1927|url=http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/highlight-for-xml?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252015%2FBrooklyn%2520NY%2520Daily%2520Star%2FBrooklyn%2520NY%2520Daily%2520Star%25201927%2FBrooklyn%2520NY%2520Daily%2520Star%25201927%2520-%25200653.pdf&xml=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FdtSearch%2Fdtisapi6.dll%3Fcmd%3Dgetpdfhits%26u%3D6c404f01%26DocId%3D9682416%26Index%3DZ%253a%255cIndex%2520I%252dE%252dV%26HitCount%3D3%26hits%3D9b%2B9c%2B9d%2B%26SearchForm%3D%252fFulton%255fNew%255fform%252ehtml%26.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false}}</ref> but the name was in use at least as early as 1926.<ref>{{cite news|title=Homeseekers buy Hollis dwellings|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 21, 1926|page=32|quote=They also sold for E. Trump & Son a Colonial type dwelling on Wall Street to William Socolow for occupancy.}}</ref> Elizabeth Trump remained involved in the family business throughout her life. Even in her 70s, she would collect coins from the [[laundromat]]s in Trump buildings.<ref name = "Blair1"/> ==See also== * [[Married Women's Property Acts in the United States]] * [[Women's rights#Property rights (US & Britain)|Women's property rights]] ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{Find a Grave|105719858|Elizabeth Christ Trump}} {{Trump family}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Trump, Elizabeth Christ}} [[Category:1880 births]] [[Category:1966 deaths]] [[Category:American real estate businesspeople]] [[Category:American women business executives]] [[Category:American business executives]] [[Category:Businesspeople from New York City]] [[Category:German emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:People from Bad Dürkheim (district)]] [[Category:Trump family|Elizabeth]]'