Wiesengrund: The Jewish Heritage 132
Wiesengrund: The Jewish Heritage
of his Father’s Romantic Name
The Jewish family of Wiesengrund moved from the village of Dettelbach
in Franconia and settled in Frankfurt towards the end of the nineteenth
century. At that time, the inhabitants of Frankfurt normally drank
cider, but even then the pleasure-loving citizens did not confine their
enjoyment to that somewhat sour drink. They knew very well how to
profit from the fact that they were surrounded, to the west and to the
south-east, by two important traditional wine-producing regions that
still produce wine today. The long-necked bottles brought Riesling from
the Rheingau, while the slopes of the bends in the River Main around
Würzburg were the source of wine from the Sylvaner grape that was
sold in large-bellied bottles. It was natural for a businessman who had
grown up in one of these regions to earn his living by dealing in the
produce of the Riesling or Sylvaner grapes.
The Wiesengrund wine-merchant’s business was first established by
Beritz David-Wiesengrund in 1822 in Dettelbach am Main, close to
Würzburg with its bishopric and princely residence. He appeared on the
scene in Dettelbach as a merchant together with his brother Abraham
David, who was six years his senior. Jews had been actively engaged in
trade in Dettelbach since before the end of the sixteenth century.^1 Both
brothers founded families and increased their already considerable
possessions. Each owned his own house; they were actively engaged in
cattle-dealing to begin with, and then in dealing in land and property.
The wine-merchant business was a later addition. In 1817 the prince
bishop of Würzburg decreed that the Jews of the region should change
their names. The name David was now abandoned in favour of
Wiesengrund.^2 His first son, Bernhard, was a cooper by trade, and in
1837 he took over his father’s wine-merchant business. The younger
brother, David, inherited his father’s imposing house, but soon after-
wards moved to Würzburg, where he died in 1861. The well-established
wine business belonging to the young merchant and master-cooper
Bernhard Wiesengrund (1801–71) evidently had a bright future. How-
ever, since he was able to increase his already considerable inheritance,
and had become wealthy, and since there were too many competing