Zais, Maria Sibylla Josepha (gen. Josephine), née Schalch

Businesswoman

born: 04.03.1770 in Schelkingen

died: 13.06.1844 in Wiesbaden

In 1796, Zais, daughter of Maria Anna Kirfinger (widowed von Staab) and Thaddäus Petrus Justus Schalch, clerk to Count von Castell, married the architect Christian Zais. In 1805, the family moved to Wiesbaden, where Christian Zais had been appointed building inspector with a seat and vote on the Bau-Chauseekomission. Having come to Wiesbaden without any family connections or ties, the family surrounded themselves with an educated and artistically interested circle of acquaintances and friends. While her husband helped to shape a Wiesbaden that was not only architecturally new, Maria Sibylla Josepha Zais was responsible for the upbringing of their nine children and for the growth and stability of the house, in keeping with her role as a woman. From 1813, she ran a boarding house in addition to her own household, for whose paying guests Zais was responsible as landlady.

In 1819, she waived her dowry in connection with taking out loans for the construction of the family's own large bathhouse "Vier Jahreszeiten" and was thus liable as a debtor for an amount of 80,000 fl. The construction of the bathhouse and the securing of access rights to the thermal springs led to a revolt by the bathhouse owners against the Zais family's plans in April 1820. Even before the matter was finally clarified, Christian Zais died unexpectedly in 1820 and Zais became a widow at the age of 50. None of her five children still living with her (aged 9, 13, 16, 19 and 22) were financially provided for. Zais took up the fight to complete the bathhouse and secure access to the thermal springs and was able to open the hotel a little later; in the years that followed, she mostly entrusted its operation to tenants. For 17 years, Zais ran the Badhaus Vier Jahreszeiten and was responsible for maintaining the family property. It was not until 1837 that the ownership rights were transferred from her and her children to her eldest son Wilhelm Zais, who took over the business some time after his mother's death.