Caesar Wolf

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Caesar Wolf (born May 18, 1874 in Hamburg ; died May 13, 1933 there ) was a German private banker and Freemason .

family

Sally Caesar Wolf came from a Jewish family of bankers. Since 1899 he was married to Elisabeth Meyer, who committed suicide on December 4, 1941 shortly before her deportation to Riga . The marriage resulted in a daughter, she escaped the Holocaust by emigrating to Sweden .

education and profession

Wolf completed an apprenticeship at the J. Goldschmidt bank . After the death of his father and brother, he took over his father's company, a private bank based in Hamburg.

Freemasonry and social engagement

Wolf was involved in Freemasonry for decades . From March 14, 1901 until his death he belonged to the Lodge Absalom to the three nettles , formerly Loge d'Hambourg . From 1904 to 1908 Wolf held the office of treasurer in this lodge. In 1908 the Freemasons in his lodge elected him Master of the Chair . He held this office until the end of May 1923, openly anti-Semitic currents in the Hamburg Freemasonry prompted him to resign. In 1926, at the request of his lodge brothers, he resumed the office of master from the chair . 23 lodges and grand lodges had him on their lists of honorary members.

Wolf's charitable activities were diverse. He campaigned for the promotion of acting children from poor families, was active in the care for the severely handicapped ("Krüppelfürsorge") and worked in the Father City Foundation , which provided living space for poor senior citizens.

Gravestone Caesar Wolf

Wolf saw himself as a patriot and came forward after the start of World War I as a volunteer , but was rejected for health reasons. Wolf, in his capacity as master of the chair , used the extensive financial donation from a deceased lodge brother to build a military hospital with a capacity of on the site of the Elisabeth Hospital built by Freemasons (today the Elisabeth Retirement and Nursing Home of the Freemasons from 1795 eV ) 125 beds to be built. From this legacy and with funds from his own fortune, he also financed a hospital train with more than 30 wagons. From 1921 Wolf worked as the executive chairman of the Masonic Hospital. Under his leadership, it was considered one of the best hospitals in Hamburg.

Nazi dictatorship and end of life

Just a few weeks after the handover of power to the National Socialists on January 30, 1933, anti-Semitic politics also affected Caesar Wolf personally. At the beginning of May 1933, a uniformed man denied him access to the Elisabeth Hospital. On the night of May 12th to 13th, 1933, Wolf shot himself right in front of this clinic. The burial took place on May 14, 1933 at the main cemetery in Ohlsdorf near grid square G 5 (south of Bergstrasse ).

Afterlife

Stumbling stone in Kleine Schäferkamp 43 in front of the former hospital

On May 23, 1933, the Absalom Foundation e. V. held a memorial service for Wolf in the Curiohaus . For many decades his grave was thought to be lost. After it was finally rediscovered, Freemasons from Hamburg took care of the restoration of the 2.4 meter high stele made of sand-lime brick . Since then, his death has been commemorated there every year. There is also a memorial plaque in the entrance area of ​​the Elisabeth retirement and nursing home . Three stumbling blocks - in front of the retirement home, in front of his last place of residence at Oberstrasse 107 in Hamburg and in front of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce - remind us of him.

literature

  • Caesar Wolf in memory [materials on the occasion of his funeral], without location, without year [Hamburg 1933].
  • Friedrich John Böttner: From the history of the great lodge of Hamburg, 1914-1935 - Caesar Wolf to the memory. In: Quatuor Coronati Jahrbuch , 25 (1988), pp. 107-127.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich John Böttner: From the history of the great lodge of Hamburg, 1914-1935 - Caesar Wolf to the memory , p. 108 f.
  2. ^ Caesar Wolf on the memory [materials on the occasion of his funeral], p. 12.
  3. ^ Institution website.
  4. ↑ Celebrity Graves
  5. ↑ Caesar Wolf on the memory [materials on the occasion of his funeral], p. 9.
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Caesar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Sally Caesar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German private banker and freemason
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1933
Place of death Hamburg