The Abraham Wertheimer Family
Abraham Wertheimer was the first of his family to receive the “Letter of Protection” of the town of Gunzenhausen on 12.05.1778. Who his parents were and when he was born are unknown. He ran a "Schmusshandel”. He was married to Esther, born 1747, her parents too are unknown.
Their only son Salomon Abraham was born in September 1785 and married, in August 1840 when he was 55 years old, the 40 year old Esther Hess from Leutershausen. He traded in quilts and feather down. They too had just one son, Amson, born on 30.04.1841.
He, Amson Wertheimer, was married twice and had eight children. The family lived at Burgstallstrasse 2.
Amson seems to have been quite a remarkable man. From 1874 to 1895 he was Head of the Jewish Community of Gunzenhausen. On 02.12.1884 he was elected magistrate and remained so until 1890.
He traded in hops and farm products, but apparently also in houses. Between 1864 and 1881 he acquired five houses and sold them shortly after. In 1866 he obtained a permit to operate a kosher kitchen.
There were three children from his first marriage to Amalia Lehmann, born on 07.07.1835 in Gunzenhausen.
Emma * 20.07.1863
Elise * 20.03.1866
Siegfried * 12.12.1868
Five further children were born to his second wife, Carolina Steppacher, born on 17.11.1848 in Ichenhausen:
Simon * 06.09.1872
Louis * 04.09.1873
Mina * 16.10.1874
Wilhelm * 04.03.1876
Frieda * 17.12.1879
The two daughters of the first marriage married two brothers from Oberlangenstadt, both butchers and livestock traders. Emma’s husband was Moritz Fleischmann and Elise married Elias Fleischmann.
His son Siegfried stayed in Gunzenhausen and in 1899 he married Clara Lang, born on 26.06.1874 in Treuchtlingen to the leather dealer Max Lang and his wife Nanni, née Bretzfelder.
The couple first lived at Burgstallstrassse 2. It’s not known if his father’s family was still living in that house or whether they had moved to one of his other properties.
Three children were born to them there:
Alice * 14.12.1899
Alfred * 21.11.1900
Helene * 28.01.1905
In 1906 they purchased the house at Bahnhofstrasse 35 from Johann Huber. At that time there was a building material business there, while Siegfried Wertheimer was General Manager of the Ton-Ofenfabrik GmbH until April 1917.
The family left the town on 01.04.1920 and moved to Munich, selling the house to Dr. Karl Rothschild.
Siegfried died in Munich on 15.09.1933. His son Alfred emigrated to Shanghai in April 1938.
Of the children of the second marriage, only Simon and Louis remained in Gunzenhausen. They ran a craft mill (Kunstmühle) at Nürnberger Strasse 36 which was listed in the trade register from 1899 until 1919 under the name of A. Wertheimer. The “A” apparently stands for Amson, their father, although he had already died in 1898.
In 1903 Simon married Fanny Heilbronner, born on 09.04.1880 in Ichenhausen. The couple lived at Nuernberger Strasse 36 and had four children:
Arthur * 02.01.1905
Karoline * 14.04.1907
Alice *27.03.1908
Else *16.08.1910
The family moved to Munich in 1919.
As their half-brother Siegfried and family followed them in 1920 and later Louis also registered there, the further fate of the Wertheimer family is unfortunately not known to us.
Daughter Elise from the first marriage died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp on 09.06.1943. She is the only member of the family that we know of who perished during the Third Reich.