Villa Samuel Black

In 1892, the Villa Samuel Schwarz was built in the Zeulenrodaer Stra;e 8, right next to the company premises of „Samuel Schwarz Söhne, Mechanische Weberei“. The builder was the Jewish merchant Samuel Schwarz, who had settled in Greiz in 1840 and founded a family here.
From 1895 at the latest, Max Schwarz lived in the villa with his wife Franziska (née Bing, *1858) and their son Walter (*1886). Max Schwarz was born in August 1854, the son of Samuel Schwarz and his wife Elisabeth (née Bloch). In 1876 Max Schwarz founded together with his brother Detmar (*1851) the company "Samuel Schwarz Söhne, Mechanische Weberei". In 1894 he became the sole owner of the company and also owned the property at Zeulenrodaer Straße 6, where the company premises were located. Before moving into the villa with his family, in 1885 he lived at Schulstra;e 63 (one of the houses on the left between Röhrenbrunnen and Rathenauplatz), and in 1892 the merchant was to be found at Poststra;e 7. In 1922 Max Schwarz died.
Due to the persecution of Jewish people during the National Socialist government, the Schwarz family no longer lived in the villa from 1937. As the last family member, only Paul Heller, a nephew of Samuel Schwarz, was recorded as living in the villa around 1929. Presumably, he lived there with his family until his death in 1931.