SALOMON TUCHMANN

Salomon Tuchmann was born in Markt Uehlfeld in 1808.

He was my great‐grandfather. To comply with the Juden‐edikt of June 10, 1813, he was apprenticed to a "Zeugmacher" (clothesmaker) when he was 15 years old. He never practised this trade, but at the age of 19 when his apprenticeship was completed, he started to work for his father selling hops. His business was small and he had to walk on foot from one village to the next. The brewers gave him only small orders as they brewed mostly for themselves.

At the age of 24 he married Jette Reichenberger who was 14 months older than he. This may seem unusual but his sister Babette Bing married a man 20 months younger than she was and his brother Marem (Moritz) was 18 months younger than his wife. Perhaps this is the reason why the bride hesitated a long time before accepting the bridegroom's proposal. Salomon had to ask for her hand three times. The marriage was very happy, they had twelve children of whom seven sons and one daughter survived.

As was the custom in those days only one son was permitted to study. Maro became a physician and later settled in London. All the other sons entered their father's hop business.

It is not known exactly when Salomon Tuchmann started his own firm. The letter heads always carried the inscription: "Stammhaus begruended in 1807" (original firm founded in 1807). This year must have been chosen on the basis of some action taken by Marx Tuchmann who was then 33 years old. His sons were not yet born and the Judenedikt was not yet in force.

In 1848 Salomon Tuchmann moved to Fuerth and between 1865 and 1867 to Nuremberg. His sons were already living there.

It shows enormous financial progress that Salomon Tuchmann, his brother‐in‐law Loeb Hopf and Mr. Heidenheimer, also a hop dealer from Markt Uehlfeld and descendant of the barnoss when the new Synagogue was dedicated, each erected a large building at the Bahnhofstrasse in Nuremberg. Two of these buildings are now occupied by the Grand Hotel, one, Bahnhofstrasse 5, the building facing the Reichsbank on the corner of Gleissbuehlstrasse belonged to Salomon Tuchmann. It was sold about 1933 to a public agency which uses it as a guest house.

As a result of all these changes there is only one reminder left of the hop business in the neighbourhood: The street in back of the three buildings is called: Hopfenstrasse (Hop Street).

Bahnhofstrasse 5 was vastly different from a modern house.

It had a small garden in front with a fountain in the center. My father often commented on such waste of space ‐ still it had quite a decorative effect. The entrance led to a small apartment which was occupied by the bookkeeper and his wife. Later it had the advantage of a bathtub in the kitchen. The other apartments had no bathtub and the inhabitants had to use a bathtub on the ground floor of the warehouse.

Modern architects follow the principle that the lobby sells the building. The rule could not have been followed when Banhofstrasse 5 was built because there was no lobby to begin with and the entrance was entirely dark.