16 Part I: Origins
1918–38.^8 The wine-export business expanded considerably under
his management and created a solid foundation for his marriage. The
cosmopolitan wine-merchant was not yet thirty when he made up his
mind after a lengthy stay in London to settle down and marry. This was
all the easier as his sister Alice Betty (1873–1935) had set him a good
example by making an excellent match the year before. She became the
wife of Paul Epstein, a mathematician and subsequently professor of
mathematics in Strasbourg. He was the son of a well-respected,cultivated
middle-class family in Frankfurt. The couple had four children, one of
whom later became a musicologist and another a historian. Oscar’s other
sister, Jenny (1874–1963), married Arthur Villinger. Her wedding took
place the same year as her brother’s.
Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund was an enthusiastic participant in the
city’s cultural life. He frequently attended performances at concerts and
the opera. This had led to his introduction to two somewhat unusual
ladies who were part of Frankfurt society. There was scarcely a single
musical event in the city from which the inseparable sisters with the
somewhat exotic, and even mysterious, name of Calvelli-Adorno della
Piana were absent. They were well thought of as musicians. What must
the reaction of the family have been when Oscar’s marriage to the
already somewhat mature singer was announced? After all, such aunion
fell well outside the expectations of the affluent Jewish commercial
middle class. The business orientation of such families suggests that
there may well have been objections and reservations. However, Oscar
was man enough to get his own way, and in all probability his sisters
would have given him moral support. It was surely necessary for him to
assert himself, since his new family was intended to include not just his
fiancée, Maria, but also her younger sister Agathe, who became a mem-
ber of the new Wiesengrund household from the outset. For, notsatisfied
with introducing two socially respected but nearly penniless artists into
the house, Oscar discovered that even the formalities of the wedding
were not without their complications. There was no denying that Maria
Calvelli-Adorno della Piana had a sensational name.^9 But there was the
legal difficulty that she possessed French rather than German citizen-
ship because, in all his years in Frankfurt, her Corsican father had never
succeeded in satisfying the property requirements needed for him to
be granted official recognition as a citizen of the imperial city. That
explains the couple’s decision to take the same route that her own
parents had taken before her. They thus brought into being an amusing
family custom, and in the summer of 1898, after a suitable period of
engagement, they went to London where, like the bride’s parents, they
celebrated their marriage in the register office of St Pancras.
The couple had to wait almost five years before any children made
their appearance. Not until Friday 11 September 1903 did the day arrive
when a son was born, at around 5.30 a.m. As was customary in those
days, the birth took place at home. How did the family react to this