Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. His parents were Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., and Edith Lieber. He was the youngest of three children. His ancestors had come to America from Germany in 1855. They were prosperous, originally as brewers and merchants. Both his father and his grandfather attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were architects in the Indianapolis firm of Vonnegut & Bohn. His great-grandfather was the founder of the Vonnegut Hardware Company, an Indianapolis institution.