Wilhelm Schwarz was born in Hohenems on March 9, 1807 as Wolf Levi. His mother Friederike Landauer came from Bavaria. His father Josef Abraham Schwarz worked as a peddler and trader (Swiss textiles) between Hohenems and South Tyrol. Around 1830, Wilhelm and his brothers Ernst, Moritz and Jakob started a variety of economic activities in South Tyrol, as grain merchants, in the banking business and last but not least as brewers in Vilpian and Gries near Bozen. Even before that, Ernst Schwarz had operated the military canteen during the construction of the Franzensfeste, and in 1840, when a fire broke out in Brixen, the brothers had organised the rescue services. In 1863 Wilhelm Schwarz took over the management of the modern steam brewery in Vilpian, which became famous through several awards at various world exhibitions. Ernst Schwarz’s son Sigmund was responsible for the expansion of the local and mountain railways in South Tyrol from 1891, while the family’s banking business was finally absorbed into the Creditanstalt. Wilhelm Schwarz died in Bozen in 1892.