Oscar Aquarius

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Oscar Wassermann, 1929 (damaged photograph from the Federal Archives).
Family home in Bamberg, Hainstrasse 19

Oscar Wassermann (born April 4, 1869 in Bamberg , † September 8, 1934 in Garmisch ) was a German-Jewish banker. From 1912 to 1933 he was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank and served as its spokesman from 1923 to 1933.

origin

Wassermann's family came from the Jewish ghetto in Regensburg . His already wealthy grandfather Samuel moved to Bamberg in 1850 and founded the bank AE Wassermann there, which was later managed by his sons Angelo (von) Wassermann (1834–1914) and Emil Wassermann (1842–1911). Emil Wassermann married Emma Oppenheimer from Frankfurt . The couple had ten children, the eldest of whom was Oscar Wassermann and their youngest child Sigmund Wassermann .

job

After completing a banking apprenticeship in Munich and Paris, Oscar Wassermann joined the Berlin branch of the Bamberg parent company, which was established in 1889 and was in charge of its management from 1900 together with his cousin Max von Wassermann (1863–1934). In 1898 he also joined the Society of Friends , of which he would later become chairman for many years (1924–1934). The business of the Berlin branch of AE Wassermann soon outpaced those at the headquarters, mainly due to Oscar Wassermann's lucrative securities trading. So he was recruited in 1912 for the stock exchange business of Deutsche Bank , which he ran together with Paul Mankiewitz . He also specialized in mortgages , which is why he represented the interests of Deutsche Bank on various supervisory boards of mortgage banks. He also dealt with the bank's financial investments in the potash and shipping industries.

After the First World War he was a member of the German Finance Commission headed by Max Warburg in the negotiations on the Versailles Treaty . He maintained the international relations of Deutsche Bank and was a member of the General Council of the Reichsbank , where he influenced the monetary system of the Weimar Republic . His 1922 plan for reparations payments , however, was not appreciated.

Wassermann was deputy chairman of the Central Association of German Banks and Bankers and from 1923 to 1933 spokesman for the board of Deutsche Bank. In 1929, Deutsche Bank and Disconto-Gesellschaft merged under his leadership , which the two banks justified with the “compulsion to rationalize”. Thanks to the high reserves resulting from the merger, Deutsche Bank was able to survive the banking crisis of 1931 without government aid. Nevertheless, the chairman of the supervisory board, Franz Urbig, was not very enthusiastic about Wassermann's actions and said: “ Where was the primus inter pares who had to maintain an overview of and influence on the whole? "

Judaism

Socially, Oscar Wassermann was the representative of the German-Jewish financial upper middle class. In contrast to most of the representatives of this group, however, due to his strictly orthodox upbringing, he was strongly committed to Judaism and Zionism . He was chairman of the German offshoot of the “Jewish Palestine Works” ( Keren Hajessod , KH) founded in 1922 and of the corresponding “Palestine Grundfonds (KH) e. V. ”whose main aim was to acquire land in Palestine. He achieved the greater part of his income by collecting money from wealthy Jews he knew personally. Wassermann therefore became chairman of the German branch at the founding meeting of the Jewish Agency in 1929. However, its founder Chaim Weizmann did not want his open confession as a Zionist .

Wassermann was also involved as the second chairman of the board of directors of the “Association for the Establishment and Maintenance of an Academy for the Science of Judaism”, founded in 1919, organized its fundraising and even in the last years of his life he regularly took part in a Talmud study group.

National Socialism

Even before 1933 Wassermann was the target of violent anti-Semitic agitation, which accused him of participating in the so-called “Versailles Shame Peace” and defamed him as a “representative of Jewish high finance ”. After Hitler- Papen's government was formed in January 1933, his replacement was only a matter of time. Originally it was planned to remain on the board of directors of Deutsche Bank until the end of 1933. However, his colleagues announced his retirement for reasons of age before the general meeting in June 1933, which he was supposed to lead as spokesman for the board. He died the following year as a broken man and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee on September 12, 1934, the funeral speech was given by Leo Baeck .

Art collection

Quentin Metsys - O Casamento Desigual.jpg 381 KB

Wassermann's heirs, his daughters Karin and Hedwig as well as his widow Katharina (Käthe) auctioned works of art at auction houses Alfred Berkhahn and Graupe in the 1930s . Some works from the Oscar Wassermann collection are entered in the Lost Art database. Among them is a work by Quentin Massys , the marriage contract, which is now in Brazil. The case made headlines there in March 2013.

From 1925 to 1933 he lived in Berlin W 35, Tiergartenstraße 8d.

literature

Web links

Commons : Oscar Wassermann  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In Avraham Barkai's biography, the photograph is retouched on p. 40. More photos from Wassermann ibid.
  2. ↑ Avraham Barkai: Yiddish-Putkamerisch packaged . in: Kalonymos. Contributions to German-Jewish history . Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute . Issue 3, 2003 ISSN  1436-1213 .
  3. ↑ Lost Art Internet Database - Simple Search . 5th March 2016.
  4. ↑ Lost Art Internet Database - Simple Search . 4th March 2016.
  5. ↑ Família judia tenta reaver pintura que faz parte do acervo do Masp . March 13, 2014.
  6. ↑ Berlin address books 1925–1933.
personal data
SURNAME Aquarius, Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1934
Place of death Garmisch