Ernst Kohlberg 1881

The image shows Ernst Kohlberg in 1881. Ernst Kohlberg (1857–1910) was born in Beverungen, Westphalia, at that time a province of Prussia. He left home in 1875 with Solomon C. Schutz, who had business interests in the El Paso area. Kohlberg agreed to work for Schutz without salary for six months to a year in order to defray the costs of his passage to Texas. The two reached Franklin, as El Paso was then called, by stagecoach. After working off his debt to Schutz, Kohlberg invested in a Mexican gold mine and worked in San Francisco before returning to Franklin in 1881 and opening a cigar store in partnership with his brother. On a family visit to Germany in 1884, Kohlberg met and married Olga Bernstein. The two became prominent civic leaders and philanthropists in El Paso; Olga Kohlberg founded the first public kindergarten in Texas. The Kohlbergs were successful business entrepreneurs who made valuable and memorable civic contributions to the development of El Paso and West Texas. In 1886 the Kohlberg brothers established the first cigar factory in the Southwest. They operated the business under the name of Kohlberg Brothers Tobacco Company. Five years later, the young businessmen opened the International Cigar Factory. As the first cigar manufacturers in the Southwest area, the Kohlbergs’ signature product became the popular La Internacional cigar. Among Ernst Kohlberg's other holdings was the St. Charles Hotel, which he leased to a compulsive gambler who in 1910 shot and killed Kohlberg after falling far behind in his rent. Mr. and Mrs. Kohlberg had four children, three boys and one girl. Olga Kohlberg died in 1935.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections, University of Texas at El Paso Library. Collection Name: Kohlberg family papers. Photo ID: MS369 Ernst.

Uploaded by: UTEP Library Special Collections