Alexander Meyer-Cohn

Alexander Meyer-Cohn (born May 1, 1853 in Berlin ; † August 11, 1904 ) was a co-owner of the Berlin bank Meyer-Cohn and an important sponsor of the museum for German folk costumes and domestic products .

Life

Meyer-Cohn was a gymnast in his youth and remained an avid hiker until his death . He was also a passionate collector of autographs , after his father, who was a trained typesetter and founded the bank, had aroused his interest with the gift of a Schiller letter while he was still at school. From 1871 Meyer-Cohn collected the manuscripts of important personalities, especially writers. His main interests were the French Revolution , the Wars of Liberation and the Revolution of 1848 . In 1886 he presented a catalog of his collection. This first catalog of a private collection of autographs, which did not appear on the occasion of an auction, was of particular interest for research because Meyer-Cohn had excerpts from unknown manuscripts printed. Meyer-Cohn's acquisitions were guided by the good state of preservation and valuable content of the documents. In addition to this, he also collected portraits of personalities.

The founding of the museum for German folk costumes and domestic products drew Meyer-Cohn's interest in folklore . He made the museum's first collecting activity possible by providing Ulrich Jahn , Adalbert Bezzenberger , Adrian Jacobsen and Robert Forrer with credits so that they could undertake the collecting trips assigned to them. The museum was able to open with extensive holdings just one year after the founding of the committee, which was supposed to make acquisitions for the purpose of founding a museum. Meyer-Cohn also donated the model of a Black Forest farmhouse from the Kinzig valley, which was designed by the architect Großmann and made by the landscape painter Georg Maria Eckert in Karlsruhe. It arrived at the museum shortly after it opened. Afterwards, Meyer-Cohn financed further collecting trips by Jahn, as well as his exhibition at the German Exhibition in London. Because Rudolf Virchow always aimed to nationalize the museum, Meyer-Cohn reserved the property rights to over 2,000 objects - including, for example, the Alsatian and Spreewald parlors and 80 traditional costumes. When the museum association was granted the right to corporation in 1899, it renounced its ownership rights and donated a further 527 objects, including 40 traditional costumes, to the museum. Some of these came from Serbia , Croatia and Slavonia , i.e. from Slavic and not just German-speaking areas. The parts of the collection donated by Meyer-Cohn were important and in excellent condition. He wandered through many of the regions from which he owned items. It can no longer be determined whether he collected the items himself or used local buyers. He was the second treasurer in the museum association and, through his private commitment, made it possible, among other things, to purchase the Hindeloopener room . In 1899 he was the third chairman and in 1900 he was the second chairman.

Alexander Meyer-Cohn was its treasurer from the foundation of the Society for Folklore in November 1890. He held the same role in the Literature Archive Society founded in December 1891 and in the Association for the History of Berlin . Meyer-Cohn made valuable gifts to the Literaturarchiv-Gesellschaft as well as the Goethe National Museum in Weimar and the Germanic National Museum . He followed the auction market carefully and tried to protect valuable cultural assets from migrating abroad. After his untimely death in 1904, James Simon took over his important role for the Berlin Museum for German Folk Costumes and Home Crafts .

Publications

• Catalog of a collection of autographs on the history of German literature since the beginning of the 18th century , edited by Alexander Meyer-Cohn, Berlin 1886.
• A first-class collection , communications for autograph collectors, Volume 3 (1886), pp. 77–86.
• Jamund near Cöslin. With Berücks. the collections d. Museum f. German folk costumes u. Produce d. Hausgewerbes zu Berlin , together with Ulrich Jahn , in: Zeitschrift des Verein für Volkskunde, Volume 1 (1891), pp. 77-100.
• An artist archive , in: Messages for Autograph Collectors, Volume 9 (1892), p. 3f.
• Once again the auction pair , in: Mittheilungen für Autographensammler, Volume 10 (1893), pp. 44f.
• Letters from Emperor Wilhelm the Great from the years 1811-1815 to his brother, Prince Carl of Prussia , Berlin 1897.
• Three unprinted letters from Goethe to Count Karl Friedrich v. Reinhard , Berlin 1900.
• A letter from Rückert. Reported by Alexander Meyer-Cohn from his autograph collection , in: Litterarian Mittheilungen. Festschrift for ten years. Exist d. Litteraturarchiv-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Berlin 1901, pp. 94-104.

literature

• Fritz Homeyer: German Jews as Bibiophiles and Antiquaries , 2nd Edition, Tübingen: Mohr 1966, pp. 9–13.
• Ulrich Steinmann , founder and sponsor of the Berlin Folklore Museum. Rudolf Virchow, Ulrich Jahn, Alexander Meyer Cohn, Hermann Sökeland, James Simon , in: Research and Reports , Volume 9 (1967), pp. 71–112.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ulrich Steinmann, founder and sponsor of the Berlin Folklore Museum. Rudolf Virchow, Ulrich Jahn, Alexander Meyer Cohn, Hermann Sökeland, James Simon , in: Research and Reports , Volume 9 (1967), pp. 71–112, 83.
2. ^ Ulrich Steinmann, founder and sponsor of the Berlin Folklore Museum. Rudolf Virchow, Ulrich Jahn, Alexander Meyer Cohn, Hermann Sökeland, James Simon , in: Research and Reports , Volume 9 (1967), pp. 71–112, 84f.
3. ^ Ulrich Steinmann, founder and sponsor of the Berlin Folklore Museum. Rudolf Virchow, Ulrich Jahn, Alexander Meyer Cohn, Hermann Sökeland, James Simon , in: Research and Reports , Volume 9 (1967), pp. 71–112, 85.