House Straus

In 1819, Maier Strauß (1783-1856), who came from Wollenberg (today Bad Rappenau) and had lived in Hochberg as a "Schutzjude" since 1815, acquired the house from Adam Dohl. Maier Strauß worked as a cattle dealer and bed salesman and was "Jewish church warden" in Hochberg from 1833 to 1853. His son Seligmann Löw Straus worked in his father's business and bought the house from his father in 1841. In 1842, Seligmann Löw founded the bed feather and quilt factory "Straus & Cie" in Ulm, which he moved to Bad Cannstatt in 1862. In Cannstatt and Untertürkheim, large factory buildings of the company were built, which determined the silhouette of the towns. The internationally successful company Straus & Cie. was "Aryanized" in 1938. After the death of Seligmann Löw's wife Dina née Elsas, a sister of Benedikt Elsas, in 1893, his son Isac Straus, a partner in Straus & Cie. since 1872, inherited the house at Hauptstr. 25. After his death, Isac's children transferred the house to Straus's family foundation in 1911, which had it used as a Jewish poorhouse. In 1939, all assets of Jewish foundations were forcibly incorporated into the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany". This was a compulsory organization of German Jews under the control of the Gestapo, from whose funds Jewish emigration from Germany was to be forced and those remaining in Germany were to be provided for. The house was sold by the Reich Association in 1942