Charles Louis Fleischmann

Charles Louis Fleischmann(November 3, 1835 – December 10, 1897) was a Jewish Hungarian-American manufacturer ofyeastwho foundedFleischmann Yeast Company.
In the late 1860s, he and his brother Maximilian created America’s first commercially produced yeast, which revolutionizedbakingin a way that made today's mass production and consumption ofbreadpossible.
A native ofJägerndorf(Czech:Krnov),Moravian Silesia, Charles Fleischmann was the son of Alois (or Abraham) Fleischmann, a Jewish distiller and yeast maker, and Babette.He was educated inBudapest, Hungary,Vienna, andPrague. He wasHungarianand married theRussianHenriette Robertson in New York.He then managed a distillery inVienna, where he producedspiritsand yeast. In 1865, Fleischmann came to the United States, and was disappointed in the quality of locally baked bread in theCincinnati, Ohio, region. The brothers, along with another business partner named James Gaff, founded what became theFleischmann Yeast CompanyinRiverside, Cincinnati, in 1868.
In 1876, they exhibited aModel Vienna Bakeryat theCentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which brought international publicity and sales exposure to the fledgling company, and yeast sales dramatically increased. Eventually, Fleischmann would own 14 manufacturing facilities.Charles' son Max commuted to New York headquarters from his home in Santa Barbara, California, by private railcar.
The company still exists today as aSt. Louis-based producer of yeast and other products. The Fleischmann Yeast Company eventually became the world's leading yeast producer and the second largest in the production ofvinegar. It was also a commercial producer ofgin, under the Fleischmann brand name. Whenprohibitioninterfered with liquor sales, the Fleischmanns developed a new market for yeast, investigating its possible health benefits for skin and digestion, and promoting it as a good source ofvitamins. They hired theJ. Walter Thompson Company, who created a health foodfadfor yeast cakes.
Charles Fleischmann is responsible for numerous mechanicalpatentsinvolving yeast production machinery. He helped to organize the Market National Bank and became its president from 1887 until his death in 1897. He was buried inSpring Grove Cemeteryin a mausoleum based on theParthenon.His son,Julius Fleischmann, later served as the mayor of Cincinnati.
Charles Fleischmann was inducted into the American Society of Baking’s Baking Hall of Fame on March 3, 2008, at the society's annual meeting inChicago, Illinois.
Fleischmann's son, Julius Augustus Fleischmann (June 8, 1871 – February 5, 1925) was an American businessman, the long-time president ofFleischmann's Yeast, and a formermayor of Cincinnati. The bon vivant, sailor, and sportsman was the youngest mayor by the year 1900 and later served three times as adelegateto theRepublican National Convention.
Fleischmann's grandson,Julius Fleischmann, Jr.(1900–1968) was among other things a philanthropist who founded World Art, Inc. (directed bySerge Denham), an organization devoted to sponsoring cultural organizations. In 1937, World Art financed theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo, which launched its first season in 1938.
Fleischmann's great-great-great-granddaughterElizabeth Holmesis an American fraudster and former businesswoman who foundedTheranos, a failed and fraudulent blood-testingSilicon Valleystartup.