 The Beyth family was a well established, rooted Jewish family in the small town of Bleicherode in Prussia (today Thuringia), where they had helped to build up the local textile industry.Being located in Brandenburg-Prussia at that time, the Jewish community of Bleicherode dated back to the beginning of the 18th century, when the Prussian King encouraged Jewish settlement in town, and Jewish families ( amongst them the famous Bleichröder family, Bismarck's bankers ) contributed considerably to the economic development of that ancient Thuringian mining town at the crossroads of important trade routes.Typically for well-assimilated families with a strong German identity, during World War I, several sons of the Beyth family volunteered for the German army and at least one was awarded the "Iron Cross".