Bernhard Kahn

Bernhard Kahn

Bernhard Kahn , sometimes also called Benedikt Kahn , ( May 23, 1827 in Stebbach - March 8, 1905 in Heidelberg ) was a German businessman , entrepreneur , banker and local politician in Mannheim .

Life

Bernhard Kahn was one of five sons of Michael Kahn and Franziska Kahn nee. Bear from Stebbach. The parents had acquired Mannheim citizenship in 1851 and moved there in 1854. They traded, finished and processed bed feathers .

Bernhard Kahn grew up in a wealthy and educated environment and was trained as a businessman. During the 1848 revolution , he worked as a political agitator in the Stebbach area and, after the restoration began, had to flee via Switzerland to the USA , where he acquired US citizenship in 1854 . After the amnesty he returned in 1857 and was recognized as a citizen of Mannheim on September 5, 1860, where he joined his father's company as a partner and this led to an upswing with the business contacts he had initiated in the USA.

With his two brothers Emil and Hermann he led after his father's death in 1861 initially Bettfedernfabrik under the company M. Kahn sons continued. However, the brothers quickly left the company to the Straus family, who had previously owned it, and founded the M. Kahn Sons banking business on August 12, 1867 in Theaterstrasse 5 (D2, 11) in Mannheim, which was converted into a stock corporation in 1873 . In 1871 he was involved in the founding of the Rheinische Hypothekenbank and on April 4, 1873 in the founding of the Deutsche Unionbank , where he and his brother Emil Kahn took over the management board; In 1896 this bank merged with the Ludwigshafener Pfälzische Bank .

For 26 years he was a member of the Mannheim city ​​council . He has also worked on various charitable projects. From 1900 he had his retirement home in the Villa Lassig , Schloß-Wolfsbrunnenweg 22 in Heidelberg.

After the death of Bernhard Kahn, his widow Emma donated 60,000 marks for the construction of a people's reading hall in his memory in Mannheim-Neckarstadt-West on Mittelstrasse, which was initially run by the Volksbildungsverein and later by the city of Mannheim. The institution was supported by her sister Bertha Hirsch . The Bernhard Kahn Library still exists in the same location today; it celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006.

family

Bernhard Kahn was married to Emma Eberstadt (born October 29, 1840 in Worms ; † June 25, 1906 in Heidelberg), the daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt, who had moved from Worms to Mannheim, and his wife Sara. With her he had eight surviving children:

• Franz Kahn (1861–1904 Strasbourg), lawyer
• Clara Kahn (1863–1922 Berlin), married to Paul Jonas ( Syndic of AEG )
• Robert Kahn (1865–1951 Biddenden, Great Britain), composer
• Otto Hermann Kahn (1867–1934 New York), banker and partner in the Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
• Elisabeth, called Lili Kahn (1869–1940 Ostend ?, lost), married to Felix Deutsch (co-founder of the AEG)
• Paul Kahn (1870–1947 Athens), private secretary of Gerhart Hauptmann , later director of the AEG Athens branch
• Felix Kahn (1873–1950 New York), private owner
• Hedwig Kahn (1876 – after 1950 London), married Meyer, later Pollack in Great Britain

literature

• Wolfgang Ehret: The Jewish Kahn family from Stebbach. Manufacturers, revolutionaries, bankers. In: Kraichgau, contributions to landscape and local research , volume 17, 2002, pp. 231-256.
• Karl Otto Watzinger : The Jewish community of Mannheim in the grand ducal period 1803–1918. (= Publications of the Mannheim City Archives , Volume 3.) W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1987.
• Karl Otto Watzinger: History of the Jews in Mannheim from 1650 to 1945. (= Publications of the Mannheim City Archives , Volume 12.) W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1987.
• Mary Jane Matz: The many lives of Otto H. Kahn. Pendragon Press, New York 1963.
• Volker Keller: Pictures of Jewish life in Mannheim. (= Special publication of the Mannheim City Archives , No. 19.) Edition Quadrat, Mannheim 1988.
• Wolfram Angerbauer , Hans Georg Frank: Jewish communities in the district and city of Heilbronn . Heilbronn district 1986
• Wolfgang Poensgen: Mannheimer Bürgerbuch . Mannheim 1965.
• Hans Wilderotter (Ed.): The extremes touch. Walther Rathenau 1867–1922. (Catalog of the exhibition of the German Historical Museum in cooperation with the Leo Baeck Institute, New York) Argon, Berlin 1993. (Eberstadt, Kahn, Deutsch, Jonas, Pollack families) therein: Ernst Schulin: Walther Rathenau's Diotima; Lily Deutsch, her family and the group around Gerhart Hauptmann (pp. 55–66)
• John Kobler: Otto The Magnificent. The Life of Otto Kahn . Charles Scribner's Sons, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York 1988.
• Father, Helfrich-Rall: women in Mannheim. Then and now (grades 11/12) . Subject-related teaching February 16 - February 19, 1994. Written compilation of résumés, here: Bertha Hirsch
• Ceremonial event in the Bernhard Kahn library. In: Mannheimer Morgen from February 21, 1994
• “Woman culture” on the trail. Head of the Bernhard Kahn library researches the life of Bertha Hirsch. In: Mannheimer Morgen from February 22, 1994
• Successful composition. Neckarstadt, ceremony in honor of Bernhard Kahn. In: Mannheimer Morgen from February 24, 1994
• In grateful memories. Exhibition in Mittelstrasse. In: Mannheimer Wochenblatt of March 2, 1994
• Bernhard-Kahn-Bücherei celebrated. In: Neckarstadt Anzeiger from March 5, 1994
• Mannheimer Hefte , issues 3/54, 3/57, 1/60
• Franz Kahn: Citizenship, Acquisition and Loss, Homelessness. Baden (French) and American law . In: Journal for International Private and Public Law , 8th year 1898, pp. 20–21.
• Irmgard Leux-Henschen: Kahn estate. Research on the question of the origin of musicality in the Robert Kahn family. State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Music Department, Berlin undated

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography ( Memento from December 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Ehret 2002, pp. 247/248.