Ele Winkler  

Compiled by Mrs. Ida Stahl, Neustadt ⁄ Aisch, with a supplement based on the data of Mr. Benno Salmonsen provided by Fritz Tuchmann..

Ms. Stahl writes: Ele Winkler was born on May 26, 1806 as the daughter of Marx and Miriam Tuchmann in Ühlfeld. She married David Winkler from Schnaittach, to whom she had 7 children over the years, whom she raised with love and care. Ele was a beautiful, stately woman, energetic and wise, with a genuinely kind heart, with a great sense of humor, who remained true to herself until the end of her days. Despite the large household, she eagerly supported her husband in the business and occasionally even bought the hops herself in the surrounding villages. In her simple, upright manner, with her intelligence that was above average, she was a personality. She was very devoted to her siblings and was happy when she could please them; The following letter, written in Hebrew script, tells of this:

April 14th, 1848:

Dear brother and sister‐in‐law!

At the moment the Rotschild brings me your letter and I hurry to get your valuable orders, from which I make my honor. You will receive a box containing 49 eggs, which cost 32 kreuzer; what is above that belongs to Master Ernst. But God knows I am sorry that no children have been sent to me. My children have been looking forward to it so much. Let the cabbage taste good. A good kosher Jewish woman (namely me) has preserved it. Can I help you with anything else?. The box is in the Swan. You can have it picked up. You will have the honor of my visit as soon as my wardrobe is in better condition to be able to appear in Fürth; for I am only equipped for the winter and not for the spring. Otherwise I would already have come to you. I hope that you will all be quite well, and thank God we are, too. Send me your children soon and live well, happy holidays, as your faithful sister and sister‐in‐law wishes.

Ele.

Perhaps on Passover you will visit.

Greetings from my people.

She was the first Jewish woman in Schnaittach who no longer wore a false hairpiece, which was announced in the synagogue from the pulpit as a warning example. She was interested in the questions of the time and was very well read. In her marriage she was the leader and spiritually superior to her husband. Ele died on September 15, 1877 in Nuremberg.

David Winkler, El's husband, was born on December 28, 1795 in Schnaittach. His father had two brothers who, like all Jews at the time, had to give themselves a German name. One called himself Davidsohn (David's son) the other Beck. The third could not find a suitable name and complained of his need to the landlord Winkler in Rollhofen near Schnaittach, where he had his base and his Meadow. He patted him on the shoulder and said:

"You know what David, I want to be your godfather, my name is just David Winkler". His son David, Ele's husband, was a hops trader and founded his hops business around 1825. He married a sister in Hohenems in Voralberg, visited the small breweries in Voralberg with his one-horse wagon, and from there went to Switzerland in search of customers, where he also found sales for hops. Around 1855, he moved with his family to Nuremberg, where he bought a house in Breite-Gasse and, in addition to the hop trade, also ran a hop smoke business there. He died in Nuremberg on January 4, 1870.

Their eldest son Maier Winkler was born in Schnaittach on December 31, 1829. After an elementary school education, he attended Wolfrum'sche Commercial School in Bamberg and then joined the G. C. Mais freight forwarding company in Milan as a trainee, returning to Schnaittach after a considerable time. Here he sought to put the knowledge he had acquired abroad to practical use and further expanded his father's business. He remained in close business contact with the Milan company for many years and later moved to Nuremberg with his parents and siblings.