Alexander Mendelssohn

Alexander Mendelssohn (born September 19, 1798 in Berlin ; † October 25, 1871 there ) was a German-Jewish banker from the Mendelssohn family .

Life

Alexander Mendelssohn was born as the younger son of the banker Joseph Mendelssohn and his wife Henriette, b. Meyer born. His brother was geographer Georg Benjamin Mendelssohn .

Alexander Mendelssohn completed a commercial apprenticeship. In the years 1820/21 he served as a one-year volunteer from his military service. In 1822 he became a partner in the Mendelssohn banking house founded by his father . In 1821 he married Marianne Seeligmann, a daughter of the broker Bernhard Seeligmann. With this he had the daughters Marie, Margarete, Alexandrine and Clara and the sons Hermann, publishing booksellers in Leipzig, Adolph and Franz , both bankers, and Wilhelm, farmer.

After the death of their father, he and his cousin Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy ran the company. In 1850 they founded the Berliner Kassenverein bank on the basis of the Berliner Cassenverein created by Joseph Mendelssohn. In the 1850s there was a growing trend towards doing business with Russia. The Mendelssohn Bank placed Russian bonds on the German financial markets and gave loans to the Russian state. In addition, Mendelssohn & Co. took part in the establishment of the Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft in 1856 and in the establishment of Commerz- & Discontobank in Hamburg in 1870 .

Alexander Mendelssohn was involved in the Jewish and non-Jewish community life in the city of Berlin. He was a member of the board of directors of the Society of Friends and for many years headed the Society for the Dissemination of Crafts and Agriculture among the Jews in the Prussian State. He was also active as a sponsor for social projects. Together with his brother Georg Benjamin Mendelssohn, he founded the Henrietten Foundation in 1863 in memory of their mother who died the previous year. This paid orphaned girls funds to purchase a trousseau. The foundation was linked to the Moses-Mendelsohn orphan education institute, which was subordinate to the Jewish community and whose board of trustees included Mendelssohn. In Charlottenburg , where he owned a summer residence, the Villa Sorgefrei , he played a key role in the construction of the first hospital in 1864/65. Also in Charlottenburg, Mendelssohn and his wife founded the Mariannenstift in 1870 to provide for poor, single old women at 7 Scharrenstrasse, today's Schustehrusstrasse . The purpose of this foundation was "to grant female, exceptionally male persons of advanced age housing and heating material".

While his brother converted to Christianity, Alexander remained true to the Jewish faith. He and his wife had their children baptized after they were born. Alexander Mendelssohn himself, however, worked in 1847 on a commission of the Berlin Jewish community, which drafted a petition on the occasion of the planned Jewish law. In the 1860s he was also a member of the assembly of representatives of the community.

He maintained close friendly relations and long-standing, partially preserved correspondence with Alexander von Humboldt , who invited him, along with two other people, to receive his honorary citizenship in Berlin in 1856. After Humboldt's death, Mendelssohn was co-founder and treasurer of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Nature Research and Travel .

Alexander Mendelssohn received from Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In 1854 the title of a Privy Councilor of Commerce and various medals from the Prussian and Russian governments. In 1871 he was given honorary citizenship by the city of Charlottenburg.

tomb

Alexander and Marianne Mendelssohn were buried in the Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee next to Alexander's parents.

Individual evidence

↑ Sebastian Panwitz: The house of the crane. The private bankers of Mendelssohn & Co. (1795–1938). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-263-0 , pp. 152–156.
↑ Sebastian Panwitz: The house of the crane. The private bankers of Mendelssohn & Co. (1795–1938). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-263-0 , pp. 126–129.
↑ Image index: Mariannenstift, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Berlin), Scharrenstrasse 7
^ Statute of the Mariannenstift in Charlottenburg, in: Rudolf Elvers , Hans-Günter Klein : The Mendelssohns in Berlin. A family and their city (= State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage. Exhibition catalogs. 20). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-88226-185-4 , p. 255.
↑ Sebastian Panwitz, Ingo Schwarz (ed.): Alexander von Humboldt - Mendelssohn family. Correspondence (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research. 34). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005154-3 .
↑ Sebastian Panwitz, Ingo Schwarz (ed.): Alexander von Humboldt - Mendelssohn family. Correspondence (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research. 34). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005154-3 , p. 292 f. (No. 269).

Web links

Sebastian Panwitz: Alexander Mendelssohn

personal data
SURNAME	Mendelssohn, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German banker
DATE OF BIRTH	September 19, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	October 25, 1871
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Sebastian Panwitz: The house of the crane. The private bankers of Mendelssohn & Co. (1795–1938). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-263-0 , pp. 152–156.

[2] Sebastian Panwitz: The house of the crane. The private bankers of Mendelssohn & Co. (1795–1938). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-263-0 , pp. 126–129.

[3] Image index: Mariannenstift, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Berlin), Scharrenstrasse 7

[4] Statute of the Mariannenstift in Charlottenburg, in: Rudolf Elvers , Hans-Günter Klein : The Mendelssohns in Berlin. A family and their city (= State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage. Exhibition catalogs. 20). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-88226-185-4 , p. 255.

[5] Sebastian Panwitz, Ingo Schwarz (ed.): Alexander von Humboldt - Mendelssohn family. Correspondence (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research. 34). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005154-3 .

[6] Sebastian Panwitz, Ingo Schwarz (ed.): Alexander von Humboldt - Mendelssohn family. Correspondence (= contributions to Alexander von Humboldt research. 34). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005154-3 , p. 292 f. (No. 269).