Židovská komunita a podnikání

Jewish Community and Business

Jews and Tvarůžky Cheese of Loštice  
Loštice are renown for their tvarůžky cheese throughout the country and abroad. This unique cheese has been enjoyed by rich and poor for centuries. The term tvarůžky surfaced in written sources from the end of 16th century. By the 18th century tvarůžky cheese was a well known delicacy and became an important business commodity. A record of Schindler’s tvarůžky cheese manufacture in Hnevotin near Olomouc dates from 1790. During the 19th century Hněvotín was the center of tvarůžky cheese manufacturing, but in the 20th century Loštice became the foremost producer. Information regarding the first Loštice cheese makers is based on oral history. According to these sources a trade secret came to the town in two waves in the second half of the 19th century. Anna Sekaninová is considered the godmother of Loštice tvarůžky cheese manufacturing. She was familiar with the process since she came from the Schindler family in Hněvotín.

“The widow with five children, who knew the secret of making this really popular food was brought to Loštice by a merchant named Friedman, who was apparently of Jewish religion. He combined the entrepreneurial spirit of his race with the experience of the mother Sekaninová and became one of the founders of the Loštice tvarůžky cheese tradition.”
A. Lang: Vyprávění o tvarůžkách. In: Severní Morava 4, Šumperk: 1959, p. 13.

A stocking-knitter and carter Josef Wessels also learned the secret in Hněvotín and started the successful operation in Loštice during 1876. From the beginning the cheese was transported to buyers by carriers or by horse drawn wagons. A later use of the railway increased the number of customers, which were located for instance in Brno, Prague and Vienna, also in Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey etc. During the 1920s and 1930s there were approximately 17 tvarůžky cheese makers in Loštice. About third of them were Jewish, who operated small to medium family businesses. Primary Jewish tvarůžky cheese makers were: Eckstein, Klein, Wischnitzer and Langer.

Jewish firms were closed by the Nazis and remaining operations were nationalized after 1948. Presently the tradition and fame of the Loštice tvarůžky cheese is being kept alive by the successor of Josef Wessels – company A.W. spol. s r.o.

	Marketing Materials, Lostice around 1930 Tannery – L. Ehrlich
	Tvaruzky Cheese” Manufacturing – S. Eks
	Butter and Egg Trade – E. Knöpflmacher