Emil Russell

Emil Russell (born July 27, 1835 in Clemenswerth Castle near Sögel in Emsland ; † October 23, 1907 in Charlottenburg ) was a Roman Catholic lawyer, mayor and banker.

Life

Emil Russell was born as a member of one of the most influential German-English families in the Emsland, who had a reputation for holding almost all management positions in the region through mutual protection. There were family relationships a. to the cosmopolitan Leeran merchant family Garrels and the house of Arenberg . His father, who was related to the British family of Earl Russell through his great-grandfather (during the Seven Years' War, English war commissioner in the Emsland) , became bailiff in 1850, later district chief in Meppen . Emil therefore left the Carolinum grammar school in Osnabrück and switched to the Meppen grammar school . He studied at the Georg-August-University of Goettingen jurisprudence and 1854 in the Corps Hildeso-Guestphalia recipiert .

After graduating with honors, he embarked on an administrative career. Shortly before the end of this apprenticeship, the north Emsland municipality of Papenburg , which had just been promoted to town, elected the 25-year-old full-time mayor. He held this position from 1861 to 1872. Emil Russell made a name for himself as an active promoter of business and education. So he brought his brother-in-law Hermann Brandi , father of the well-known historian Karl Brandi , a respected educator, to the city. The shipping city of Papenburg suffered heavily from the change from a wooden sailing ship to an iron steamship, especially since the port was far inland. Russell had a new, larger lock built, supported the shipyards and settled the woodworking industry.

politics

The city of Papenburg sent its mayor to the Hanoverian provincial parliament, where he, one of the rare Catholic National Liberals, quickly made contact with the National Liberal Mayor of Osnabrück, Johannes Miquel , who came from the neighboring county of Bentheim . Russell ran as a Catholic government candidate in August 1867 for election to the North German Reichstag against the Catholic-Welf opposition candidate Ludwig Windthorst in the constituency of Meppen. Despite official electoral support, he clearly lost this election. His attempt to prevent Windthorst from entering the Prussian House of Representatives in November 1867 also failed . The National Liberals won only 26 electors in the constituency Meppen itself, Windthorst, however 164. In October 1867 failed Russell's attempt at a by-election in the constituency Aurich-Wittmund, which also Papenburg belonged as left National Liberal against his right party colleague Johann Gerhardt Röben to win. Although the Catholic came into the runoff election, he was defeated. With his candidacy against Ludwig Windthorst, the mayor of Papenburg had opened all doors for a further career that would have been closed to a center man in the Kulturkampf .

High finance

In 1872, on the recommendation of his party friend Johannes Miquel, the Berlin Disconto-Bank appointed the Papenburg mayor to its management floor. The lateral entrant Russell quickly made a name for himself with his profound legal and economic knowledge and his quick perception. He was entrusted with large branches of business in the coal and iron sector, after successfully coping with it he saved a railway empire in Romania from collapse and saved a lot of German capital. Russell was granted power of attorney as early as 1874, and in 1878 he became one of the bank's four personally liable business owners. This made him one of the most important major bankers in the German Empire. His further business activities took him to the boards of a number of large corporations. As a result, Russell moved into the management of the "Central Association of German Industrialists", whose deputy chairman was the Emsländer. In addition, Russell was active in commissions, for example in 1883 in the commission for the consultation of the company law amendment and a commission for the preparation of the "Civil Code". He also made a name for himself as a currency expert. Due to health problems, Russell resigned as owner of the Disconto-Gesellschaft in 1900, but was still a member of the supervisory board until 1905. At that time he was one of the wealthiest bankers in the empire and had influence across Europe. Russell remained lifelong connected to the Emsland and its influential family. In 1899, his son Enno Russell was granted power of attorney for Disconto-Gesellschaft, which merged with “Deutsche Bank” in 1929, where Enno Russell was a member of the supervisory board. Emil Russell's grandson Viktor von Rintelen later became a director of Deutsche Bank. His uncle Anton Russell was a member of the Reichstag for the Center Party .

Emil Russell's hereditary burial in the old cathedral cemetery St. Hedwig , now used as a community grave

literature

• Joseph Austermann: Overview of the history of Papenburg . In: Festschrift for the inauguration of the new town hall of Papenburg in June 1913 . Papenburg 1913.
• Rainer Hehemann: Russell, Emil . In: Rainer Hehemann (edit.): Biographical manual for the history of the Osnabrück region . Edited by the Landschaftsverband Osnabrück, Bramsche 1990, pp. 250-251.
• Helmut Lensing: The elections to the Reichstag and the Prussian House of Representatives in Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim 1867 to 1918 - party system and political conflict in the constituency of Ludwig Windthorst during the German Empire . (Emsland / Bentheim. Contributions to history, vol. 15. Ed. Of the Emsland landscape for the districts of Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim), Sögel 1999.
• Helmut Lensing: Russell, Emil. In: Study Society for Emsland Regional History. Volume 16, Haselünne 2009, pp. 215-226.
• Martin L. Müller:  Russell, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 298 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Wilhelm Schmidt: Men of the Deutsche Bank and the Disconto-Gesellschaft . Published on behalf of Deutsche Bank AG, Düsseldorf 1957.
• Eckhard Wagner: From the mayor on the Ems to the major imperial banker. For Emil Russell's 150th birthday . In: Yearbook of the Emsland Heimatbund . Volume 31/1985, Sögel 1984, pp. 57-68.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin L. Müller:  Russell, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 298 f. ( Digitized version ).
2. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 77/15