November 07 1948
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Sunday, November 07, 1948
Fritz Brieger, 70, Banker, Ex-City Official, Foe of Harvey
Funeral services for Fritz Brieger, 70, prominent Queens banker and builder and former Queens Superintendent of Street Cleaning, who died of thrombosis Thursday night while riding home in an automobile, will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at the Urban Funeral Home, 69th St. and Queens Boulevard, Woodside. Cremation will be at Fresh Pond. He lived at 5302 63rd St., Woodside.
Mr. Brieger, who built a $300 printing business into a wealthy enterprise and then became interested in banking and real estate, was appointed by the late Borough President George U. Harvey as Superintendent of Street Cleaning in December, 1928. He conducted an investigation into the department, using his own funds to pay private investigators. The inquiry, which resulted in the removal of three bureau officials, turned from holdovers to Harvey appointees and expended to other branches of the Harvey administration.
Mr. Brieger resigned in March, 1929, saying he was disillusioned with the Harvey administration. He later made three unsuccessful attempts to have Mr. Harvey removed from office, filing charges with the then Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt and twice with Gov. Herbert H. Lehman. Each time the charges were dismissed.
Mr. Brieger, a native of Glatz, Silesia, was an actor with a wandering troupe of players in Germany before coming to America in 1897. He ran his printing business in Manhattan for 22 years before branching out into real estate and building enterprises in the early 1920s. He built the Woodside National Bank, of which he was vice president and a director; Loew's Woodside Theater, and 89 houses in Woodside.
An expert chess player, Mr. Brieger was influential in chess circles here and abroad. His business interests in Woodside covered a wide range. He was president of the Juber Real Estate and Insurance Agency, owner and president of the Woodbury Wine and Liquor Company and owner and president of the Elmboro Realty Company.
He was a member of the Steuben Society, the Ancient Lodge, F & A. M. and was active in Queens Democratic circles and numerous Queens civic and social organizations, including the Woodside Lions Club and the Queens Elks Club. He was vice president of the New York State Chess Association.
Surviving are his widow, the former Renate Schoen, and three daughters, Mrs. Clara Haddad, Mrs. Margaret Juber and Mrs. William Butler, and seven grandchildren.
