Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal

[1] During the famine in Ansbach in the middle of the 18th century, Hofmann's parents had emigrated from Pretzendorf (now Himmelkron), near Bayreuth, to Bohemia, where they lived in very poor circumstances.

His early training he received at home, and from his thirteenth year he studied at Prague as a "bachur" (Talmudic scholar) under Rabbi Abraham Plohn.

Having received the same year a permit from the Austrian government to do business in Vienna, he chose the name "Isaak Löw Hofmann".

On the death of Baruch he was made a partner and, in 1794, became sole member of the firm which bore the name "Hofmann und Löwinger".

He received many honours, and was made, in 1835, a member of the hereditary nobility by the Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria as Edler von Hofmannsthal.