Chaim Eitingon

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Chaim Eitingon (around 1929)

Chaim Eitingon (born December 11, 1857 in Schklou , Belarus ; † December 24, 1932 in Leipzig ) was a tobacco merchant and donor in Leipzig.

Life

Chaim Eitingon was born to Jewish parents on December 11, 1857 in Schklou in what was then the Pale of Settlement . In 1882 he married four years younger than Chassidin Alexandra Lifschitz (1 August 1861-30. November 1929), with whom he had four children (Esther, Fanny, Waldemar and Max (1881-1943), the latter was later a well-known psychoanalyst). In the same year he founded the tobacco shop Ch. Eitingon in Moscow , just one year later he opened a branch at Leipziger Brühl 37-39 (entry in the commercial register 1896). He was one of the few Jewish traders whom the Tsar allowed to stay in Moscow after the pogroms in 1882; he commuted between Leipzig and Moscow. In 1903 he returned to his parent company in Moscow, which, however, was liquidated in 1914 before the socialization campaign due to the business relations with war opponent Germany. After the October Revolution , Eitingon finally relocated its headquarters to Leipzig in 1917. His family lived at Döllnitzer Strasse 9 (today Lumumbastrasse). Chaim Eitingon quickly expanded his operations with branches in New York and Paris .

Eitingon was one of the most successful fur traders at Leipzig's Brühl. At first, while still in Moscow, he wanted to specialize in the highest-priced sable skins , but for which his capital was insufficient, he began with production orders and the sale of sable clothing. Later, after expanding his range, he traded skins from almost all eligible countries, with the exception of cheap mass-produced goods such as hare or rabbit fur . The connections with the mostly German furriers who worked for him gave him contacts to the Leipziger Brühl. During the first 10 years after the establishment of the Leipzig branch and the stay in Leipzig, he brought in two nephews as partners, the experienced Max Eitingon (1874–1939) and the very young Matwey Isakowitsch (1883–1956), the later emigrated to New York.

In 1925 he converted his company into a stock corporation , the directors included the nephew Max Eitingon and Chaim's son Waldemar. In 1926 and 1928 his AG was able to show an annual turnover of 25 million Reichsmarks. He invested part of the profits in the real estate business. His leading position in the tobacco industry earned him the nickname "Pelzkönig" vom Brühl. The family was also called "the Rothschilds of Leipzig".

He never completely gave up ties to the Russian fur market. Soon he had a representative office in Moscow again, the Moscow Stock Corporation for Tobacco Trade (renamed several times). Of all the large companies, he was the most heavily involved in the western market, as an intermediary for Russian trading centers. Around 1920 he founded the Moscow Fur Trading Co. in London and the Societé Anonyme des Moscou in Paris . From Moscow he had already established Eitingon & Co. in New York with his nephew Matwey as a representative. This company, he could not keep, he transformed it into the Eitingon Inc. shield around. Between the two world wars, this rose to become the most famous tobacco products company in the world, and under the heirs it went to the company Eitingon, Gregory & Jaglou .

In 1921, for the 25th anniversary of the business, Eitingon increased an already granted foundation by 7,000 Marks to 10,000 Marks, with the condition that the "income without reputation or denomination be used for the benefit of merchant widows and daughters". The foundation was abolished in 1937 by the National Socialists in favor of the “Foundation for Special Support”.

In 1922 he donated the Jewish-Orthodox Ez-Chaim-Synagoge (Otto-Schill-Straße 6-8 / Apels Garten 4). It was Leipzig's second largest Jewish church and offered space for 1,300 believers. Through his son Max he was also a patron of the psychoanalytic movement : Freud's vindicated bon mot is: “The best cases of analysis are the skins of old Eitingon.” The Ez-Chaim synagogue was destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938 and the rubble was removed billed to the Israelite community.

Together with his nephew Matwei Issakowitsch, Eitingon founded the Israelitische Krankenhaus-Eitingon-Stiftung , which from 1928 ran the Eitingonkrankenhaus in the Waldstrasse district . The equipment corresponded to the most modern medical knowledge of its time. This first Jewish hospital was open to all denominations with 79 beds until 1938. In 1928 a street leading to this hospital was renamed Eitingonstraße in honor of the founder . On December 14, 1939, by order of the Gauleiter of Saxony, Martin Mutschmann , the hospital and all its inventory were expropriated and evacuated within four hours. Patients and the medical staff had to move to a single house in the dozen hospital complex, where they had to get by without diagnostic or therapeutic tools.

Chaim Eitingon was an honorary member of the Israelite community in Leipzig from 1929.

The Eitingon grave in the New Israelite Cemetery in Leipzig

Chaim Eitingon died on December 24, 1932 at the age of 75. He was buried two days later in the New Jewish Cemetery (Delitzscher Strasse). His company, Chaim Eitingon AG , was dissolved after his death.

Since 1992 the former Jewish hospital has been renamed Eitingon Hospital (Eitingonstrasse 12) and is under the administration of the St. Georg Municipal Hospital .

Web links

Commons : Chaim Eitingon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Mary-Kay Wilmers : The Eitingons. A Twentieth Century Story. Faber & Faber, London 2009.
  • On the history of the Jews in Leipzig . Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1994.
  • Civic Association Waldstraßenviertel e. V .: The Eitingon family and the Eitingon Foundation . Bonn, Leipzig 2006.
  • Steffen Held: December 24, 1932. Chaim Eitingon - tobacconist and founder. In: Leipzig historical calendar 2007. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2006.
  • Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. 1st edition. ProLEIPZIG, Leipzig 2005.
  • City Archives Leipzig (Ed.): LEXIKON Leipziger Straßeennamen . Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum, Leipzig 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Eitingon. In: answers.com. Retrieved January 1, 2015 .
  2. ^ Robrecht Declercq: World Market Transformation - Inside the German Fur Capital Leipzig 1870-1939 . Routledge International Studies in Business History, New York 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-66725-9 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Walter Fellmann: Chaim Eitingon (1857–1932). In: Ephraim Carlebach Foundation (ed.): Judaica Lipsiensia. Edition Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-361-00423-3 , pp. 270-271.
  4. ↑ Important Jewish personalities in Leipzig. ( Memento from April 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: mdr.de
  5. ^ "Aryanization" in Leipzig. Approaching a long repressed chapter of the city's history - H-Soz-Kult. In: geschichte.hu-berlin.de. December 14, 1939, accessed January 1, 2015 .
  6. ^ André Loh-Kliesch: Eitingon, Chaim (1857-1932) - tobacco shop and donor. In: leipzig-lexikon.de. December 24, 1932, accessed January 1, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Harold James: The Deutsche Bank and the "Aryanization". CH Beck, 2001, ISBN 3-406-47192-7 , p. 124. Restricted preview in Google book search
  8. ↑ Leipzig Memorial Great Community Synagogue In: ltm-leipzig.de
personal data
SURNAME Eitingon, Chaim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tobacco dealers and donors in Leipzig
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Schklou , Belarus
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1932
Place of death Leipzig