Julius Joseph, born August 6, 1847 in Halberstadt, founded a wholesale business for sausage casings and intestines on Weingarten No. 5 in 1885. After his daughter Martha, born in Leipzig in 1883, joined the company in 1913, it was known as Julius Joseph & Co.After Julius Joseph’s death in 1920, Martha initially ran the business alone. In 1926 she married Emil Mayer, who had joined the company in 1919 and became a partner in 1922. Julius Joseph’s daughter Adeline Pauline, known as Paula had been working at the bank of her uncle before marrying Rudolf Mayer, Emil Mayer’s brother, in 1919. The Joseph family also lived at Weingarten No. 5. In 1931 this included Martha and Emil Mayer as well as Julius Joseph’s widow Ernestine. Paula and Rudolf Mayer, however, lived at Bukostrasse No. 4 together with their three sons; Ernst, born November 14, 1920; Erich, born July 22, 1922, and Alfred, born October 5, 1925.On October 7, 1933, Rudolf and Paula Mayer emigrated with their sons to Amsterdam, where they founded a new company. Emil and Martha Mayer followed suit in 1935.In the summer of 1939, the family was able to move to Great Britain thanks to longstanding business contacts.