The family of Jacob Mose and Luisa (née Mai) Frankenberg of Marisfeld intersects with the story of the Jewish community of Themar through migration and marriage. Jacob Moses was one of the first generation of Frankenbergs born in Marisfeld. Born 23 March 1826, he was eighth and last, child of Nathan and Regina (née Neuberger) Frankenberg.
Sometime in the 1850s, Jacob Moses married Luise Mai of Walldorf/Werra; they lived in Marisfeld, where Jacob was a cattle dealer, and formed a family of four children, two daughters—Hannchen and Malwine—and then two sons—Max and Nathan.
Like many Jewish families of Marisfeld in the late 1800s, the four children of Jacob and Luisa left Marisfeld for larger urban centres. Hannchen Frankenberg, b. 1858, the eldest daughter, moved to Mellrichstadt upon marriage to Lazarus Ottensoser. They had one son, Nathaniel, b. 1888.
Malwine Frankenberg, b. 1859, was the first to have direct connection to Themar. On 20 July 1885, Malwine married Nathan Wertheimer also born in Marisfeld. Malwine and Nathan lived in Themar through the remainder of the 1880s, forming a family of three children: Julius, Rosa, and Bertha Wertheimer. Nathan Frankenberg, b. 1863, the youngest child, connected to Themar through his marriage to Minna Gassenheimer, b. 1872 in Themar.
Max Frankenberg was born in 1861. The events of his life between birth and 1890 are not yet known. We pick up his story in 1890, when he and his wife Meta (née Rosenthal), b.1867 in Gleicherwiesen, settled in Coburg.
In 1890 the family of Jacob and Luise — with the exception of Hannchen — all moved from the Marisfeld/Themar area to Coburg in Bavaria, about 60 km southeast of Themar. Coburg was a much larger place than Themar: in the early 1900s the city had some 20,000 citizens, including 205 Jews; by 1925, the population total was 25,000 residents, including 316 Jews.
First to move, we believe, were Max and Meta who lived at Löwenstrasse 23; their first child, Arthur, was born in 1891; Else was born six years later, in 1897. Malwine and Nathan Wertheimer and their three children moved to Coburg sometime after the birth of Bertha in 1890. Jacob and Luise, both in their 60s, retired to Coburg. And for a short while, Nathan and Minna Frankenberg joined them; their first son, Siegfried, was born in Coburg in 1895.
After Siegfried’s birth, Nathan and Minna Frankenberg left Coburg and moved to Halle/Saale where their second son, Walter, was born in 1897. Malwine and Max, however, remained in Coburg. Their parents lived the rest of their lives in Coburg; Luise died first in 1907; Jacob died in March 1916. They were buried in the Jewish cemetery of Coburg.
As well, see:
Descendants List: Nathan & Regina Frankenberg
Descendants List: Jacob Moses and Luise Frankenberg
The Story of Malwine and Nathan Wertheimer
The Story of Max and Meta Rosenthal
The Story of Samuel and Lotte Gassenheimer
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Thank you to Gaby Schuller of Coburg who has contributed much of the information about the life of the Frankenberg family in Coburg. As well, we thank her for the images below of the gravestones of Jacob Moses Frankenberg and Louise (sic) Frankenberg in the Jewish cemetery of Coburg. The two images at the left are of the two sides of Jacob Mose’s gravestones. The image at the right is of Louisa Frankenberg. Her name is spelled with an ‘o’ although records spell it as Luisa.
