{geni:about_me} Birth record from Wien (alle Bezirke), Geburtsanzeigen 1894 Nr. 0313-0781 (Feb.-Apr.), Image #[https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-2579...=MMGD-2QH:n985453871 170] of 1166, derived from record # [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-2579...c=MMGD-2WM:588636459 371]. Born at Wien I, [http://www.planet-vienna.com/spots/Palais/leon/leon.htm Schottenring 17]. Given Hebrew name Esther(was the name of her gr-grandmother, Esther Reif geb. Singer).

Attended [http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/vfb/ms_pmll.htm Gymnasium Luithlen] (Private Mädchenlyceum Luithlen) after being educated by governesses in early years. Luithlen had been founded in 1861 by an early advocate of advanced education for girls, Marie Luithlen ''geb''. Hanke, to promote "Protestant teaching and education for daughters of the educated classes."

Although her [then future-] husband [http://www.geni.com/people/Ernest-Ernst-Kanitz/600...=6000000012078521891 '''Ernst Kanitz'''] had officially left the Jewish faith in 1914, at age 20, and been baptised a Presbyterian, Gertrud Reif never formalized such a move: a relative had been president of the IKG-Wien in the past, and she did not wish to hurt the feelings of the people connected. (It is believed the "relative" would have been1872-84 IKG-Wien President [http://www.geni.com/people/Dr-Ignaz-Kuranda/6000000002802227472 '''Ignaz Kuranda'''], who was among the extended family of Gertrud's mother's close 1st cousin, Helene Karpeles-Schenker.)

From Oct. 1918-May 1919, Gertrud, an accomplished pianist, studied [https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:OeG...zuuLW4sjrsOqLHJTC8MA Harmonielehre I] and Kontrapunkt I (Analyse) in [http://www.geni.com/people/Arnold-Schoenberg/6000000002764344064 '''Arnold Schönberg's'''] “Seminar for Composition,” which was offered in 1918-19 and 1919-20 ([http://othes.univie.ac.at/1907/1/2008-10-08_0304567.pdf ''Die Wiener Schülerinnen Arnold Schönberg''], p. 86). (A list of all Schönberg's students appears [http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=gamut here], p. 291.)

In 1918, at the home of a musical acquaintance, she met Ernst Kanitz, who -- although he held a doctorate in law -- was a composer. They married on June 28, 1920. They lived in the apartment of his widowed mother (who died in April 1921) -- Wien III, Landstraßer Hauptstraße 1, "Wiener Bürger-Hof" -- until their forced departure from Vienna, which occurred on June 6, 1938.

Always interested in things modern, GRK favored the simple style of design represented by the [http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/Rintro.html Wiener Werkstätte] (Vienna Workshop, 1903-32). WW sold furniture and small articles of everyday use made in glass, ceramics, silver and metal, as well as jewellery and clothing. The Wiener Werkstätte aimed at pursuing elegance using simplified shapes, geometric patterns, and minimal decoration. WW sought to ensure "the proper integration of art and daily life, including the [http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/vienna/fashion/wiener-werkstatte clothes] the cultivated Viennese should wear," epitomizing the ideal that "the total work of art was all-embracing."

Finally convinced [by GRK's brother] after the German / Nazi annexation of Austria (''anschluss'') of March 1938 that they really had to leave Vienna, Gertrude & Ernest Kanitz & family emigrated in June 1938 (as soon as exit visascould be secured) to Holland, then sailed on July 12 for the U.S. They arrived, on the SS ''Veendaam'', in Hoboken, NJ, on July 26, 1938. From there they went to live on the Upper West Side of New York (not then a nice area), in a cockroach-infested apartment on 135th Street [https://www.google.com/maps/@40.820752,-73.95658,3...gOT2wj-A!2e0!6m1!1e1 between Broadway and Riverside Drive]. Daughter Brigitta, age 13, walked down Broadway to 125th Street to take the subway to junior high school. Later that fall they moved to Due West, South Carolina, where Ernest took a job at Erskine College. By Spring 1940 they appear in the [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-2789...=M9QD-W9X:1040124960 1940 US census for Rock Hill, South Carolina], since Ernest had obtained a teaching job there, at Winthrop College, in late October, 1939.