Söhnlein, Friedrich Wilhelm

Sparkling wine producer

born: 25.10.1860 in Schierstein

died: 16.12.1948 in Schlangenbad

Söhnlein came from a national-liberal family of entrepreneurs. He was the youngest son of Johann Jacob Söhnlein, the founder of Sektkellerei Söhnlein. He assisted his father as managing director from 1900.

Söhnlein graduated from the commercial college in Geneva and rounded off his education with stays abroad in England, France and the USA. In 1909, he was awarded the title of Kommerzienrat. From 1908, Söhnlein served as Portuguese consul in Wiesbaden and from 1912 as Swedish consul. Söhnlein also held numerous honorary positions in state and municipal administration, as well as at the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce and at institutions in the fields of art and science.

Söhnlein became famous through his dispute with a French champagne cellar, against which he successfully litigated (lawsuit worth millions). In 1902, Prince Henry of Prussia and Eleanor Roosevelt christened the imperial yacht "Meteor" in their shipyard on Staten Island not with Söhnlein Rheingold - as decreed by the Emperor - but with a bottle of champagne that had been slipped underneath. This fraud was tried before the Wiesbaden District Court; the Emperor and his champagne manufacturer emerged from the trial vindicated.

Söhnlein conformed to the image of the Prussian landowner, industrialist and "royal merchant", who had to represent all these roles. In order to fulfill these representational duties and to run a house befitting his status with his wife, the American brewery heiress Emma, née Pabst (1871-1943), he had the Villa Söhnlein-Pabst built at Paulinenstraße 7 between 1903 and 1906; it was considered one of the most distinguished addresses in Wiesbaden during the imperial era. At the end of the 1920s, Söhnlein became increasingly ill, so his wife Emma became head of the winery.