Judah Herz Beer

Judah Herz Beer was a German merchant, industrialist and contractor.

His fortune wad made from sugar refineries in Gorizia and Berlin. He was the owner of the sugar mills and was in partnership in Hanseatic trade with the Hamburg merchant Salomon Heine. He was also a concessionaire of the Prussian State lottery. These enterprises brought him a fortune and he was regarded as the wealthiest man in the Berlin of his day.

As a member of the Council of Elders of the Berlin Jewish Congregation, he played a major role in the Jewish Reform movement and in efforts directed at the emancipation of Jews in Prussia.

He married Amalia (born Malka Liepmann Meyer Wulff), the daughter of the wealthy Berlin merchant and banker with whom he had two sons – a famous composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Michael Beer, a poet.