The parents: Salomon and Eugenie

According to the register of the district, Salomon Picard (1853) got married to his cousin Eugenie in Wangen (Hegau) in 1885. In Hegau, there were many flourishing rural communities, where jews had lived together with christians for centuries. However, in the second half of the 19th century, many village jews seized the chance to move to Konstanz. This town offered a wide variety of career choices and allowed for financial transactions of a larger and more modern scale than those available for traditional hawkers and cattle traders.

Salomon Picard bought a house in Konstanz in 1887. It was quite a noble house situated right at the border to the Swiss town Kreuzlingen. According to a contemporary witness (Erich Bloch) there was a gate in the garden behind the house which led directly onto Swiss territory. Before World War 1, there was no fussing about crossing the border, e.g. no passports were necessary when children from Konstanz decided to go sleighing on Girsberg near Taegerwilen. Also, traders did not have overcome any additional bureaucratic obstacles when they crossed the border.

In the register of trade for the neighbouring canton Thurgovia, an entry can be found, that confirms that Salomon Picard was a cattle trader together with his father Abraham from 1891 to 1895 in Amlikon. Amlikon, about 25 kilometers away from Konstanz, is a small village with a brigde over the river Thur, which was of importance for trade with central Switzerland. As can be found with many successful traders of cattle who profited from the insolvence of debtors, income from the ownership of real estate became important in the course of the later life of Salomon Picard. In the early 20thcentury, Salomon appeared as "Privatier", i.e. he was so wealthy that he could afford living from his interest. When the Wieler brothers in Kreuzlingen erected their knitting factory, only a loan of Salomon Picard made this effort possible. After the holocaust, the Wielers used to conclude that Salomon Picard saved their lives, because his loan enabled them to settle down in Switzerland. Further investigations are necessary with regard to the role Jews from Konstanz played in the modernization of Thurgovian society in the second half of the 19th century.

Salomon and Eugenie had three sons: Max (1885), Ernst (1887) and Hugo (1888). A contemporary described the father as a pleasant person with a great sense of humor. The mother is remembered as a warmhearted and hospitable woman. Salomon loved horses and had one in his stable. He was admired by everybody in the neighbourhood when he went for a ride. For his aristocratic attitude Salomon was nicknamed "Baron". Inspite of the conservative religious upbringing customary in the village jewry, Salomon Picard did not play a role as an active member of the jewish community. He was a member of the Konstanz town counsil and a member of the local rowing club "Neptun". When they were students, his sons apparently joined the martial University fraternities. Another member of the Picard family, Leo, who later became a professor in Jerusalem, remembers that he watched the activities of his decidedly "German" uncles and cousins with a large portion of jealousy.

The death of his oldest son Max right at the beginning of World War 1 must have been a catastrophy for the family. However, Salomon managed to have his dead son transferred to Konstanz, where there was a solemn funeral procession from one end of Konstanz to the other. According to the local paper, Salomon donated 500 Reichmark for poor children on Christmas 1915.

Eugenie Picard (née Picard 1886) gave birth to her first son at the age of 19. She was born in Wangen, but files hint at the possibility of a family connection to Mulhouse in Alsace. She staid in Konstanz as a widow until 1931 when she appeared in the Berlin directory as living at the address of her son Hugo Luetzowplatz 23. After the house in Konstanz had been sold in 1935, Eugenie must have followed her son Ernst to Jerusalem. In 1938 she visited her son Hugo in Cairo, but the climate did not seem to agree with her asthma. Eugenie Picard died in 1947. According to some sources, she was buried in Jerusalem.