Viennese branch of Kerry's family roots for candidate

VIENNA -- Michael Kerry and John F. Kerry live an ocean apart and have never met; but they have a lot in common. They share the same last name, the same birthday, the same great-grandfather.

And as Senator Kerry gains international renown as the man expected to challenge President Bush for the White House in November, his second cousin Michael is paying close attention.

"People are saying to me, `Wow, you are going to be related to the president,' " said Michael, 42, a product manager at the T-Mobile telecommunications company who in some aspects resembles John Kerry in his younger days -- with a pronounced nose and chin, for instance. "One friend has even started calling me Mr. President."

John Kerry said last year he wondered whether he has close relatives in Austria, where his grandfather lived a century ago until he changed his name and religion and immigrated to America. The answer is that some of Kerry's kin are right here in the Austrian capital and are watching with fascination as their relative has become the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee.

But Michael Kerry has never spoken to the Massachusetts senator. And he has not spoken publicly about him or the family's history until now. Like many Europeans, the members of the Austrian branch of the Kerry family share the senator's politics and are rooting for him. "I wish him all the best from the bottom of my heart, and I am sure that he will beat Bush," Michael said. "We like him. He has a serious, smart, and quite European style."

John Kerry's rise to international prominence also has added a very public dimension to what, until recently, has been a private quest by Michael's mother, Susanne Kerry, to uncover the family's history. On a wall in the five-room apartment in a high-rise building on Vienna's outskirts, Susanne, 76, a retired sculptress, has constructed a family tree detailing the Kerry clan on both sides of the Atlantic. She discovered her family's connection with John Kerry, but was not able to establish direct contact with the senator and did not pursue the connection.

Felix Gundacker, from the Institute for Historical Family Research, a Vienna-based genealogist hired by the Globe to help trace Kerry's roots, confirmed that Michael is a blood relative to the senator. Susanne is related to the senator by marriage.

Besides Susanne and Michael -- who was born Dec. 11, 1961, exactly 18 years after John Kerry -- other members of the extended Kerry family in Vienna include a local politician, a doctor, two schoolteachers, two international civil servants, and a retired artist.

But the family history in Europe also includes older generations scarred by war and anti-Semitism, and at least two relatives who died in the Holocaust.

John Kerry said last year that he was unable to establish contact with relatives in Austria. Michael said the family learned of the relationship a decade ago.

"We heard he wasn't bad," Michael said. "In fact, we heard he was quite good."

Like many immigrants, members of the US branch of the Kerry family lost contact with the European branch after leaving the old country.

John Kerry's grandfather, Fritz Kohn, was born to a Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian town of Bennisch, now called Horni Benesov and part of the Czech Republic.

Kohn moved to Vienna in the late 1870s, changed his name to Frederick Kerry, and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1901. He arrived in the United States with his wife, Ida, in 1905. Sixteen years later, he committed suicide in a Boston hotel washroom. John Kerry's father, Richard, was 6 years old at the time.

When Fritz Kohn changed his name and converted, he was following the lead of younger brother Otto-Franz, who was baptized in 1896 and changed his name a year later, according to Gundacker.

While Frederick Kerry tried to reinvent himself in America, Otto-Franz Kerry stayed in Europe, had four children -- including Michael's father, Fritz Kerry -- and was a highly decorated officer in the Austro-Hungarian army.

"The families went their own ways 100 years ago," Gundacker said. "They lived their lives here and in the States as two separate families instead of as one great family."

Like Senator Kerry's father, Richard, a US diplomat who died in 2000, Michael's father, Fritz, a professional violinist who died in 1990, was reluctant to discuss the family history. His wife and children knew he had Jewish roots, but not much more.

"My father was not the type to talk about his past," Michael said. "I understand this."

Susanne met her husband during World War II when her family was hiding him from the Nazis in their Vienna home. Susanne's father, Alfred Schmieger, was a pianist who played classical music together with Fritz. Schmieger risked arrest, or worse, by sheltering Fritz Kerry. Although Fritz was a Roman Catholic, he had Jewish roots, which placed him in constant danger from the Nazis.

In one harrowing incident, a Nazi official unexpectedly visited the house when Schmieger, Fritz Kerry, and three friends -- two of whom were Jewish -- were playing music. Fritz and the two Jewish musicians had to quickly hide in another room. Schmieger played the piano and distracted the official until he left.

When Russian troops liberated Vienna and tried to seize the family house, Fritz Kerry stopped them, saying Schmieger "saved his life," Susanne said.

Susanne and Fritz eventually married in 1948. Fritz later won a coveted place in the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Kerry family also included members who died in the Holocaust. John Kerry's great-uncle and great-aunt, Otto and Jenni Lowe -- siblings of the senator's grandmother, Ida -- died in the Theresienstadt and Treblinka concentration camps, respectively.

After her husband's death, Susanne set out to trace the family tree in an effort to honor him. The search brought her into contact with Senator Kerry's relatives in Tennessee, with whom she corresponds regularly. In a recent letter, Susanne said, she wrote, "Good luck to the front-runner!"

Michael said he would like to meet his second cousin someday.

"But now that he is so famous, it would be more difficult than before," he added. "If he ever visits Vienna, I will probably just stand in the crowd and think of our great-grandfather."

Brian Whitmore reported from Vienna, and Michael Kranish reported from Washington.