Minna Grünbaum was born on 1872 in Themar, the second child of Noah and Minna (née Friedmann) Grünbaum. Her mother, Minna, died shortly after the birth of her daughter. Noah married his second wife Josefine, called Sophine, Schlesinger, born in 1849 in Walldorf/Werra. Noah and Josefine had three children together, but only one of them, their son Karl, born in 1876, reached adulthood.
In the 1890s Minna Grünbaum married Samuel Rosenthal and moved in with him in Apolda; in 1896 the couple lived at Utenbacherstr. 29. Minna’s brothers Hugo and Karl continued to live in Themar.
We know little of the Rosenthal family’s life in Apolda. Samuel Rosenthal was a cattle dealer. In 1898 the children were born: daughter Grete in 1901; son Norbert in 1905; and in 1910 son Max.
