Elbe met Gerda Gottlieb while they were students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and they married in 1904 when Gottlieb was 19 and Elbe was 22.
Elbe u martua me Gerda Gottlieb kur ato ishin studente pranë Akademisë daneze të Arteve të Bukura në Kopenhagën, ato u martuan në 1904, kur Gottlieb ishte vetëm 19 vjeç ndërsa Elbe 22.