Frederick August Otto Schwarz


Frederick August Otto Schwarz was a German-born American toy retailer known for founding FAO Schwarz.

Biography

Schwarz was born to a German Lutheran family in 1836 at Herford, Westphalia, Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1856 with his three brothers, Henry, Richard, and Gustav. He worked for a Baltimore stationery importer. German exporters sometimes packed toys and other items in with the stationery in the hope of expanding their exports. Schwarz put the toys in the store window, and they outsold the stationery. By 1862 he had switched to selling the toys from his own shop, and in 1870 he moved his business to Manhattan. He married Caroline Clausen. Together they had four sons and three daughters: Anna Schwarz, Ida Schwarz, Henry Schwarz, George Frederick Schwarz, Emilie Schwarz, H. Marshall Schwarz, and Herbert Ferlando Schwarz.
Frederick August Otto Schwarz died at his home in Manhattan at 20 East 61st Street. Schwarz is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.
Frederick August Otto Schwarz, Jr. is his great grandson.