Hugo Cohn was born in 1851 in Halberstadt. He was married to Selma Lasch (1861-1929), whose family ran a glove factory in Halberstadt. In 1880, Hugo Cohn founded the Leinenhaus Cohn (Cohn Linens) at Westendorf No. 34a.Hugo and Selma Cohn had three children: Hans (1885), Ernst (1886) and Lucie (1897). Hans, the eldest, went to Berlin while Ernst joined the Leinenhaus Cohn. Ernst was a soldier in World War I. After the war, Ernst Cohn married Margarete Marcuse. They operated a warehouse on the centrally located Holzmarktstrasse - the very place you are now.