Moritz Tuchmann  

Edited from his chronicle and from the records of his daughter, Mrs Sofie Frank.

Mr Moritz Tuchmann writes: "It is not proper for the author of a chronicle, a drama or a poem to recount his experiences. This chronicle alone would be incomplete if I, as the youngest of eight siblings, did not also mention mine. However, I will be as brief as possible and note that I was born in June 1819 on the second day of the Jewish Pentecost and remained a weak, sickly boy until my third year. Because of my sickly condition, my mother pampered me to the annoyance of the other siblings. I was named Mahrem after a relative who had died in Floß, and later Moritz from the age of 11, as this Jewish name did not fit in Bamberg, where I attended the Wolfram'sche Handelsinstitut.

It should be added here that almost all the members of the Marx Tuchmann family had two names: one that was used among the family, such as Gelle. Ele. Schlome, and one that they put under letters and deeds. I have listed both names in the family tree. ‐

"At the beginning of my 14th year I came to Fürth to the wholesaler Philipp Heilbronn Sohn as an apprentice for 5 years. My father had to pay 600 guilders for this 3‐year apprenticeship, for which I could hardly get enough to eat due to the proverbial stinginess of our governor, and because of my unwillingness to go into this boring business, I learned very little. How I would have liked to devote myself to some branch of the arts, since I had already loved reading poems and novels in my 11th year, and how attentively I listened when someone read or recited from the classics. I was also a great admirer of music and would have gladly given up many pleasures if my parents had let me learn the piano. But my parents lacked the culture insight and so I had to reluctantly become a merchant. At the age of 17 I left Fürth and was sent to Lower Bavaria to look for customers to buy hops. It is hard to describe the bitter experiences and hardships I had to go through with this raw people until I found the right customers. How gladly I would have gone to America if my parents had allowed it. I will now skip about 6 years, as this offers nothing more interesting. In 1844 I became engaged to a Marie Scherner from Wilhermsdorf, but after 4‐5 months the marriage was broken off and in September 1845 I married my wife Babette, née Heidenheimer in Ühlfeld. This most respectable, modest woman could still be held up today as a model of a wife and caring mother, but despite her outwardly strong appearance she was constantly ailing and so I lost her in September 1879, after she had still had the good fortune to lead the eldest daughter Sofie of her five children into wedded bliss under her wedding sky. Her memory will remain with me forever, for she bore my whims and the various blows of fate with great patience and renunciation." ‐

Now Mrs. Frank continues: "Following the request of the editor of this work, Mr. Fritz Tuchmann, I enclose some data from the life of the author of the chronicle of my father, Mr. Moritz Tuchmann: "As the youngest offspring of 7 siblings, all of them felt called to try out their ‐ mostly very different ‐ methods of upbringing on their little nestlings. Humorous descriptions of these experiments, handed down to me by my father, still live in my memory. Mrs Mordchene ‐ as she was called everywhere ‐ otherwise a robust woman with no inclination for soft feelings, had a rapturous affection for this youngest child, her Männle. During his stay in Bamberg, she once expressed her care in the original admonition: "Take care, don't go to the theatre". Thus the young man, who had an astonishing urge for education coupled with an ideal enthusiasm for all that was beautiful and sublime in the fields of art and science, grew up alienated in the midst of an environment that seemed all too sober to him. According to his inclination and talent, he was far more suited to study than to be an engineer or architect. Much reflection and reading ‐ especially of scientific works ‐ then allowed the mature man to emerge as a man with a versatile education and highly attractive