Eberhard von Bodenhausen

Hans Eberhard von Bodenhausen (born June 12, 1868 in Wiesbaden ; † May 6, 1918 in Meineweh ; full name: Hans Eberhard von Bodenhausen called Degener ) was a German lawyer , art historian , entrepreneur and manager . In 1895 he was one of the founders of the Berlin art and literature magazine Pan and was in lively exchange with many artists , poets , publicists and patrons of his time, such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Harry Graf Kessler , Henry van de Velde , Rudolf Alexander Schröder , Max Liebermann or Paul Cassirer . His estate, which also includes a comprehensive correspondence with Harry Graf Kessler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is archived in the German Literature Archive in Marbach .

Life

Eberhard von Bodenhausen was the son of the Majorate Lord and member of the Prussian mansion Hans Freiherr von Bodenhausen-Degener and Fanny born in Philadelphia . Butler . He attended the grammar school in Roßleben . In 1887 he enrolled at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität for jurisprudence. In 1887 he became active in the Corps Borussia Bonn . As inactive, he moved to the University of Leipzig and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . During his studies he met Count Harry Kessler, with whom he was friends until his death in 1918. In 1892, after passing the 1st state examination, Bodenhausen initially worked as a trainee lawyer at the Halberstadt Court of Justice , then at the Wollstein district , in Nauen and later in Potsdam . As District Administrator he resigned from civil service.

In 1894, Bodenhausen was a co-founder and first chairman of the "Cooperative PAN", which published the art and literary magazine Pan as a registered association in Berlin . In May 1897 Bodenhausen met Henry van de Velde. In June of the same year, Bodenhausen visited Hugo von Hofmannsthal for the first time, with whom he became close friends.

Advertising poster designed by Henry van de Velde

On September 14, 1897, Bodenhausen founded Proton GmbH in Mülheim am Rhein . The company was renamed Tropon GmbH in 1898 and produced a protein product of the same name to improve public health . Bodenhausen was the first managing director of this limited liability company (Germany) and commissioned Henry van de Velde with the design of posters and packaging for the Tropon products. The resulting poster is now one of the most important advertising graphics that were created under the influence of Art Nouveau . An original of the first Tropon poster can now be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

On October 23, 1897, Eberhard von Bodenhausen married Dorothea Countess Degenfeld-Schonburg . From this marriage there were three children; the second child was Luli von Bodenhausen (born November 7, 1902, † July 7, 1951).

In 1902 Bodenhausen began studying art history at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , which he completed in 1905. With Bodenhausen's participation, the German Artists Association was founded in Weimar on December 16, 1903 ; Harry Graf Kessler was Vice President, Bodenhausen Secretary.

On November 2, 1907, Bodenhausen became director (member of the board ) of Friedrich Krupp AG in Essen . On May 6, 1910, he moved to the company's supervisory board . In addition to this professional activity, von Bodenhausen continued his work as an art historian, promoter and organizer of art and culture. In January 1918 Eberhard von Bodenhausen became chairman of the supervisory board of Friedrich Krupp AG.

Eberhard von Bodenhausen died before his 50th birthday in Meineweh. His grave is in the manor Degenershausen , near Ermsleben .

Honors

• Honorary member of the Corps Borussia Bonn

literature

• Karl H. Salzmann:  Bodenhausen, called Degener, Hans Eberhard Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 354 ( digitized version ).
• Hans-Ulrich Simon (ed.): Eberhard von Bodenhausen, Harry Graf Kessler. An exchange of letters from 1894–1918 . Stuttgart 1978.
• Felix Billeter: Between art history and industrial management. Eberhard von Bodenhausen as a collector of neo-impressionist painting . In: Andrea Pophanken, Felix Billeter (Ed.): The modern age and their collectors. French art in German private ownership from the Empire to the Weimar Republic . Akademie Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-05-003546-3 , pp. 125 ff . ( Excerpts from this book on Google Books )
• Baroness von Bodenhausen-Degener (ed.): Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Eberhard von Bodenhausen. Letters of Friendship, 1897–1919 . Eugen Dietrichs, Berlin 1953.
• Baroness von Bodenhausen-Degener (Ed.): Eberhard von Bodenhausen. A life for art and business . Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf / Cologne 1958.
• Friedrich Karl Devens : Biographical corps album of Borussia in Bonn 1827-1902 . Düsseldorf, 1902, p. 219
• GG Winkel : Biographical corps album of Borussia in Bonn 1821–1928 . Aschaffenburg 1928, p. 215

Web links

• Literature by and about Eberhard von Bodenhausen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Contribution of the Radio Harz-Börde-Welle about Baron Hans Eberhard von Bodenhausen
• Information on the history of Tropon GmbH with a picture of the poster created by Henry van de Velde

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 9/716
2. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.