Gutgesellentor Breisach um 1902

My name is Elaine Wolff and I live in New York. I know this old view of the Gutgesellen Gate. It says in small print: Jacob Rosenberg; he printed it around 1900. His postcards were very popular, and I collected them even as a child. This card is my favourite. Here we are in the centre of Breisach – several Jewish families also had businesses here: 

Siegfried Weil traded in hardware and household goods to the right of the gate. People went to "Iron Weil", as everybody called him, when they needed a new tool or cooking pot. Mrs Weil was busy with the orders until late in the evening. 

To the left of the gate, his cousin Emil Weil had a liquor store. The customers liked going to "Schnaps Weil". 

Siegfried and his wife Louise lived behind the shop with their four children Alfred, Hannelore, Lotte and Ilse. The Weils were popular and sociable – Mrs Weil was very religious. Michael Eisemann, the congregation's cantor, liked to come to their house on Shabbat and sit at the big table discussing religious issues and sharing nuts. 

There is now a restaurant where Siegfried Weil's shop once stood. In the hallway you can find a photo of the old building with the inscription: S. Weil.