Ernst Elfeld

Ernst Georg Anton Elfeld (born December 6, 1829 in Ratzeburg , † May 19, 1912 in Lübeck ) was a Hamburg merchant who had to file for bankruptcy during the economic crisis of 1857 . The denigrating characterization of his person in the letter of a sister of Thomas Mann should serve as the basis for the character of Bendix Grünlich in the novel Die Buddenbrooks .

Life

career

Elfeld was born as the son of a rector in Ratzeburg. After completing a commercial apprenticeship in Kiel , he became a citizen of Hamburg in 1854 , where he ran commission and insurance business. In 1857 his business went bankrupt during the Great Depression.

He worked in Vienna until around 1890 and moved to Lübeck in 1891, where he was still active in business.

Following the lecture given by Elfeld to members of the industry association on "The promotion of export trade and industry through export associations as non-profit enterprises" on the evening of February 8, 1894, Heinrich Thiel expressed the idea of holding a trade and industry exhibition in Lübeck. At the German-Nordic trade and industry exhibition , Elfeld acted as secretary and took over the post for the following three years in the Lübeck Industry Association. The merchant Paul Alfred Mann (1860–1930), a cousin of Thomas Mann , had been a member of the entertainment committee in 1895.

On January 9, 1905, Elfeld gave a lecture on the need for increased industry .

family

On May 7, 1857, Elfeld married the Lübeck merchant's daughter Marie Elisabeth Amalia Hippolite Mann and sister of the later Senator Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann . Their dowry of 80,000 Marks was lost in the bankruptcy , and the already unhappy marriage collapsed shortly afterwards. His wife returned to her parents' house in 1862, and the marriage was divorced on June 24, 1864.

From the marriage the son Siegmund and the daughter Olga emerged; However, Olga died during the divorce process. Siegmund, who had read the Buddenbrooks , had contact with Thomas Mann. Elfeld married the daughter of a high school professor in 1867.

Buddenbrooks

After Senator Mann's death on October 13, 1891, Consul Fehling and the wine merchant Krafft Tesdorpf were appointed guardians of the five children he left behind.

Thomas Mann was 16 years old at the time. In his novel Die Buddenbrooks (1901), for which he later received the Nobel Prize , Elfeld appear as Bendix Grünlich , the name goes back to the color of the cover of Elfeld's order book at the time, and his aunt as Tony Buddenbrook . The family background described in the book (Grünlich was boring, ornate, sour and even criminal) was taken from Thomas Mann from a letter from his sister dated September 8, 1897, in which she described Elfeld disparagingly .

The portrayal, according to which Bendix Grünlich would have worked as a ticket tearer in the city theater, is a literary invention that would have been incompatible with the social status of a businessman.

literature

Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke (eds.): Hamburgische Biographie. Lexicon of persons. Volume 3, Wallstein Verlag 2002, ISBN 3-835-30081-4 , p. 112.
Stübbe, Michael: The Manns. Genealogy of a German family of writers. Degener & Co, 2004. ISBN 3-7686-5189-4
Oliver Korn (Hrsg.): Hanseatic industrial exhibitions in the 19th century: Republican self-expression, regional economic development and civil pleasure (social science studies) (German edition) . Leske + Budrich Verlag, 1999, ISBN 978-3-8100-2348-3 .

References and comments

^ Gerhard Ahrens: Crisis Management 1857. State and merchants in Hamburg during the first world economic crisis. Hamburg, 1986, pp. 42-43.
↑ P. Alfred Mann was a senior partner in the companies Wm. Maaß and P. Alfred Mann . He was also the Royal Dutch Consul.
↑ Weekly chronicle from Lübeck and the surrounding area. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1905, No. 3, edition of January 14, 1905, p. 14.
↑ Heinz J. Armbrust and Gert Heine: Who is who in Thomas Mann's life? Klostermann 2008, ISBN 3-465-03558-5 , p. 171.
↑ Elfeld's green book and cover are part of the exhibits in the Buddenbrookhaus.
^ Buddenbrooks - List of real names

personal data
SURNAME	Elfeld, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Elfeld, Ernst Georg Anton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Archetype of Bendix Grünlich in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks
DATE OF BIRTH	December 6, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ratzeburg
DATE OF DEATH	May 19, 1912
Place of death	Lübeck

[1] Gerhard Ahrens: Crisis Management 1857. State and merchants in Hamburg during the first world economic crisis. Hamburg, 1986, pp. 42-43.

[2] P. Alfred Mann was a senior partner in the companies Wm. Maaß and P. Alfred Mann . He was also the Royal Dutch Consul.

[3] Weekly chronicle from Lübeck and the surrounding area. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1905, No. 3, edition of January 14, 1905, p. 14.

[4] Heinz J. Armbrust and Gert Heine: Who is who in Thomas Mann's life? Klostermann 2008, ISBN 3-465-03558-5 , p. 171.

[5] Elfeld's green book and cover are part of the exhibits in the Buddenbrookhaus.

[6] Buddenbrooks - List of real names