The graphic designer and craftswoman Johanna Elisabeth (Hanna) Stern (1885–1942) was born on 18 September 1885 in Frankfurt. Nothing is known about her childhood and youth. Together with (Federigo Benito) Matéo Cristiani, she ran a studio for book and decorative arts in Stiftstraße. In addition to ex libris, the artist also designed numerous painted postcards. She sent some of them to Matéo Cristiani, who had been drafted into military service during the First World War. Stern and Cristiani married in 1917, but their only daughter died in infancy. From 1933 onwards, the Jewish artist suffered numerous reprisals and fled to Switzerland for a time. Presumably because of his marriage to Stern, her husband was banned from working and exhibiting after 1936. Hanna E. Stern died in Frankfurt in 1942 of heart failure as a result of illness.