Söhnlein, Johann Jacob

Tobacco and sparkling wine manufacturer, founder of the Söhnlein sparkling wine cellars

Born: 12.09.1827 in Frankfurt am Main

died: 24.02.1912 in Schierstein

Söhnlein came from a Frankfurt family of craftsmen with roots in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Orphaned at the age of ten, he began an apprenticeship in a Frankfurt wine shop at the age of 15. He then worked for a tobacco company in Offenbach and from 1848 owned his own tobacco factory in Frankfurt with branches on the Bergstrasse and from 1854/55 in Schierstein. Here he bought the von Ziegesar estate, not far from the later Schierstein harbor, as his home and company headquarters. In 1854, he married Anna Maria Höser (1828-1911), the daughter of a Wiesbaden soap maker.

Together with the partners of the tobacco factory and his Wiesbaden relatives, Söhnlein founded the Rheingau sparkling wine factory there in 1864 as a stock corporation (later Söhnlein-Rheingold Sektkellerei KG). Chairman of the winery's board from 1865 and director from 1867, Söhnlein became the sole owner of the family business after 1899. Söhnlein's sparkling wine creation "Rheingold", made from Johannisberg Riesling wines, was the winery's most successful product since 1864. Söhnlein was able to link his brand to important advertising media of his time. These included the German imperial family (christening champagne of the imperial navy), the person and music of Richard Wagner and the gastronomy of overseas shipping lines. He set standards in sparkling wine advertising with artistically designed advertising, and he did the rest by promoting the Rheingau region as the "German Champagne" and waging a press war with Moët et Chandon.

Söhnlein was repeatedly involved in the tax policy surrounding German sparkling wine, e.g. for better protective tariffs (1873) on the one hand and against the threat of "luxury taxation" around 1900 on the other. As an entrepreneur of the first and second founding period, he was close to the National Liberal Party around 1900. Through his numerous honorary posts, including his membership of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce (1886-91) and the district council, he campaigned for sparkling wine at a local level.