Alexander Gentz

Manor house in Gentzrode

Commemorative plaque for the Gentz ​​merchant family on the site of the former old cemetery in Neuruppin

Ludwig Alexander Gentz (born April 14, 1826 in Neuruppin ; † July 3, 1888 in Stralsund ) was a Prussian-German entrepreneur .

Life

As the third of five children of the entrepreneur Johann Christian Gentz (1797–1867) and his wife Juliana (1787–1852), he attended a business school in Magdeburg and then traveled to England, France and Algiers to perfect his commercial, cultural and language education; in Paris he experienced the bourgeois revolution in February 1848, which he defended throughout his life. In Algiers he developed a love of oriental culture. When he returned home, he worked in his father's business.

In 1853 father and son Gentz ​​bought the former gardens of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich in Neuruppin; they decided to restore it in memoriam of Friedrich's stay and make it accessible to the public. The "sanctuary" of the garden, a small temple, which is the first work of the later Frederick builder Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, was restored and decorated with Friederiziana; after this building the garden is now called "Temple Garden". Other buildings, such as the surrounding wall, the villa and the gardener's house, were built - all without exception in the oriental style - planned and built by the Berlin architect Carl v. Diebitsch (1822–1869).

In 1856 Alexander Gentz ​​married Helene, the daughter of the Heinrich Heine publisher Julius Campe , from Hamburg. Their marriage had seven children, to whom five more were raised as children. In 1858 Alexander took over all of his father's businesses, the banking house and the peat company . In the same year, father and son began to acquire and swap numerous large plots of land around Neuruppin with the aim of building a family estate on which the model farm, known as Gut Gentzrode, was later built.

In Neuruppin, the merchant was committed to the interests of the city; He helped young merchants materially and financially in establishing their businesses. For the school youth he opened the temple garden for sporting activities and supported educational tasks. He founded and headed the committee for the erection of a monument for his compatriot, the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, which was built in the city center in 1883. So he was also elected (unpaid) Senator Neuruppins. However, when the Wiener Gründerkrach in May 1873 ushered in the great economic crisis and the French war contributions threatened to flood the German capital market after the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) and the demand for securities plummeted the shares, the banking and trading house JC suffered Gentz ​​irreparable financial damage, which was finally followed on June 4th 1880 by the filing of bankruptcy of all Gentz ​​companies. The city of Neuruppin, which also faced its senator with envy and resentment for his economic successes, had the entrepreneur accused first of bankruptcy and then of fraudulent bankruptcy. Although Gentz ​​was able to clearly prove all transactions for the audited 17 financial years and within six weeks was able to pay off all creditors through the sale of his art collection, the temple garden and the Gentzrode estate, he was sentenced to several months in prison for bankruptcy in June 1883. "No hand in Neuruppin moved for him", described a ward of Alexander and Helene, Hugo Jeltsch, the situation. In Berlin too, the bankruptcy and the legal proceedings against the well-known, enterprising and likable Alexander Gentz ​​caused great consternation in political, economic and artistic circles. - On May 11, 1884, the German Imperial Court in Leipzig overturned the judgment against the businessman Alexander Gentz, acquitted him of all allegations and criticized the Neuruppin court proceedings. Two years later, Alexander Gentz ​​left his hometown with his family and settled in Stralsund. Here he had acquired the fish canning factory W. Palm, which he ran until his death on July 3, 1888; it was continued by the family.

The Gentzens were the neighbors of Theodor Fontane's parents (1819–1898). Throughout his life, the writer had close contact with Alexander Gentz ​​and later with his brother Wilhelm (1822–1890), who lived in Berlin as an oriental painter after more than ten years of artistic training in France. From 1860 Alexander Gentz ​​supported the writer Fontane in various ways with the work on his travel book Grafschaft Ruppin , which later grew to a total of four volumes and with the second edition bore the comprehensive title "Walks through the Mark Brandenburg"; "The County of Ruppin" remained the first part. Gentz ​​let Fontane spend the night in his house or took over the accommodation and entertainment costs for him, provided him with the horse-drawn vehicle or hiked with him through the Ruppiner Land. At Fontane's request, he also wrote manuscripts for the migration volume, for example on the father Johann Christian Gentz ​​and Gentzrode, the temple garden and the Crown Prince Friedrich in Prussia. With his intercession he opened many doors to noble houses in Ruppin for Fontane and researched the historical facts of almost all Ruppin towns and villages for him. - Without Alexander Gentz, the first migration volume "Die Grafschaft Ruppin", which had five editions during Fontane's lifetime, each of which was revised or expanded, is inconceivable.

Today the city of Neuruppin reminds famous Neuruppiners - like the picture sheet manufacturers - of their former senator and heart and soul Neuruppiners, the merchant Alexander Gentz.

swell

+ Fontane, Theodor. Walks through the Mark Brandenburg. Vol. 1, Die Grafschaft Ruppin, Berlin-Weimar 1987

• Hagen, Fritz. Alexander Gentz. Neuruppin 1931.
• Rockel, Irina. Alexander Gentz. In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, April 14, 1994.
• Rockel, Irina. The Neuruppin Temple Garden. Karwe / Berlin 1996.
• Rockel, Irina. Wilhelm Gentz. Dissertation A, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin 1996.

Web links

• Alexander Gentz ​​at ruppin.de