Ernst Otto Horn

Ernst Otto Horn (born December 4, 1880 in Meißen ; † May 7, 1945 there ) was a German numismatist , merchant , wine cooper , wine wholesaler, purveyor to the royal Saxon court and art collector from Meißen. His father was also named Ernst Otto Horn . In order to better distinguish between them, the term Otto Horn or the Otto Horn Collection as well as the Horn Collection is usually used today . According to experts, Horn owned one of the most extensive universal collections in Germany. The coins and medals as well as the historical seal collection alone had a stock of around 65,000 objects. The numismatic collection has caused various legal disputes in the present.

life and work

Otto Horn was the only child of his parents in Saxon born Meissen. His father ran a bakery and pastry shop in the city, and from 1876 also a wine shop. The mother was a partner in the wine business and his father was allowed to use the title of Royal Saxon purveyor to the court as early as 1881. So Horn was able to spend a financially secure childhood. From 1887 he attended the higher middle school in Meißen, but already four years later switched to the Realschule with Progymnasium . Horn finished school with the school leaving certificate at Easter 1896. He began a commercial apprenticeship in Dresden and then went on tour through Germany , France , Italy , Austria and Spain . He tried to consolidate his knowledge of the wine trade. He was therefore mainly employed by winemakers, but also worked as a wine cooper.

Horn was often impressed by the many great award medals that winemakers had received for their wines at international exhibitions. He also discovered his love for relief-like embossing on a wide variety of metals and began collecting. Since the early death of his father, his mother took care of the local business operations in Meissen with great skill. Horn completed his military service with the Royal Saxon Rifle as a fusilier. He served in Regiment No. 108, but was initially unfit for field service after an injury and dismissed from service as a reserve officer. The mother had meanwhile leased the father's bakery and pastry shop and continuously expanded the family's assets by purchasing land. The acquisition of lucrative vineyard properties in Meißen also contributed to this.

Back in Meißen, Horn began to realize the plan for an art collection. The financial means for this project were apparently plentiful. Local business was good. He collected, however, with no apparent focus. In the collection were among other paintings , clocks , sculptures , graphics added and coins. This created one of the most important private universal collections in Germany. Horn was also committed to his hometown. He became an active member in several associations and board member of the museum committee in Meissen. In 1907 he acquired the civil rights of the city of Meissen as a merchant. Horn was able to expand its field of business again. He bought a liquor factory, ran a wine press and in 1908 took over the collection of the Royal Lottery Directorate and the Royal Pension Bank. In 1912 Horn acquired the Winkelkrug wine tavern in Meißen, which, like the wine taverns in Elbstrasse, was run by a tenant. Later, the Saxon tax authorities gave him the office of the Royal Chamber of Fire Insurance, furniture insurance department. The business successes, but also his acquired expertise in viticulture, gave Horn a good reputation among the public.

During the First World War , Horn served as a lieutenant and adjutant in the replacement battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 178 in Kamenz . His mother, who in the meantime had become a purveyor to the royal Saxon court, took over the management of the business again during this time. On October 15, 1918, King Friedrich August III. Finally, Horn himself also received the title purveyor to the court of His Majesty the King. Even after the First World War, Horn belonged to the upper class in public life; he had owned an automobile since 1904 and made many trips to Morocco , Tunisia and Egypt . He expanded his collection further, but apparently without pursuing any specific goals. He collected everything that seemed rare, good and above all expensive to him. Only after he had become a member of the Numismatic Society in Dresden did he concentrate on numismatics. He also expanded the already extensive collection of paintings, graphics and photos, but now with a focus on the hometown of Meißen. Initial financial interests and a continuous increase in value were no longer in the foreground. Numerous donations were made to the city and to the Meißen history association.

Before and during the Second World War , Horn did not position itself politically. He devoted all of his attention to the shop and its collections. With close friends he began to organize and catalog his collections. His mother's death in 1943 hit him hard and he wrote an extensive will . He had not yet started his own family, although he had been living in a similar marriage-like relationship with his housekeeper for some time. Horn now withdrew more and more, from time to time he still helped out in the restaurants he leased. Most of the time, however, he spent the whole day in his house, devoting himself to collecting items. With the end of the war and the bombing of Dresden in 1945, the fear of an air raid on Meissen grew among the civilian population. This fear must also have gripped Horn, he changed his will again.

In his legacy, Ernst Otto Horn donated a large part of his fortune to a foundation named after his parents (Otto and Emma Horn Foundation). On 7 May 1945, in the days of the end of war and the occupation by the Red Army, he committed suicide in his home in Meissen together with his longtime housekeeper suicide .

Emma and Otto Horn Foundation

In the immediate post-war years, the foundation wanted by Horn was not set up in the Soviet occupation zone and in the early days of the GDR , as new authority structures were first established. During this time, the then City Councilor Kmoch and later Paul Höndorf were entrusted with the administration of the estate. Ernst Otto Horn's will stipulated that the planned foundation for the city beautification of Meissen, to support the city museum, but also to needy students and elderly citizens of the city.

In 1949, the year the GDR was founded, there was once again a new administrator in the form of Helmut Reibig. In addition, the city of Meissen founded a board of trustees in order to have broad control over the estate. On October 1, 1951, the Otto-und-Emma-Horn Foundation was established by the then state of Saxony. Since existing foundations in the GDR were legally treated like companies, inheritance taxes and corporate taxes had to be paid to the tax office. This quickly put the young foundation in financial distress. Tax debts arose and the real estate in the foundation could no longer be managed to cover costs. In 1954 the foundation was liquidated by the city of Meissen due to a tax over-indebtedness of 590,000 German marks (GDR). The collection was nationalized.

Immediately after the political change in the GDR , efforts were made in Meißen to re-establish the Horn Foundation and were in close contact with the foundation supervision of the state of Saxony. Years of legal disputes followed. In the autumn of 1997 the foundation was revived. The courts had meanwhile made it clear that the city of Meissen was not entitled to liquidate the foundation that existed at the time in 1954. The state of Saxony would have been responsible at that time. In 1998 and 2002 it was found that the foundation was never legally liquidated and therefore continued to exist. The city of Meissen also no longer had any rights to claim. As a result, claims were again made by the Horn Foundation, which from a legal point of view still existed, to the universal collection, real estate and other assets from the Horn inheritance.

In 1998, city treasurer Alexander Thomas was appointed as the first foundation administrator in the post-reunification period, and he initiated the first steps towards the return of the foundation property by the city of Meißen. Some land and real estate were transferred back to the foundation in accordance with land register law in 2000. Some remained controversial because they were now federally owned . From February 2000 Tom Lauerwald took over the administration of the foundation. It was now a matter of securing the Horn collection and other assets in order to have at least a limited capacity to act. After another lawsuit, the proceedings were only opened in 2007 before the Dresden Administrative Court.

In the judgment, first of all, the land that was owned by the federal government was financially compensated. In the dispute over the coin and medal collection and other objects from the collection, a comparison was made. In addition, a contract was signed with the Free State of Saxony . He regulated a partial takeover of coins by the Münzkabinett Dresden and the payment of 500,000 euros in installments by 2014. Further coins were to be auctioned in auctions and the proceeds transferred to the foundation. So now a foundation work was possible. Today the foundation financially supports various projects in accordance with the will of Horn, especially in the areas of monument preservation and protection , upbringing , education , care for the elderly and culture.

• Otto Horn's business, advertisement and place of residence
• 

  Stone mosaic on the former office building in Meißen, Elbstraße 10

• 

  Advertisement by Otto Horn in the Meissen address book from 1912

• 

  Former home of Otto Horn in Meißen at Plossenweg 4

The Horn Collection

• The extensive collection of paintings, graphics, furniture, sculptures, clocks, pewter objects and photographs, including various historical books about the city of Meissen and numismatic literature, was largely absorbed in the city archive and the city museum of Meissen after Horn's death. Some of the exhibits are now an integral part of a permanent exhibition in the Meißen City Museum. Other objects remained in the direct possession of the foundation and were auctioned off, including 89 late Gothic figures in 2015 and parts of the clock collection in 2016.
• The Horn coin collection no longer exists today in its original size with an estimated 65,000 copies. The largest contiguous part is in the Münzkabinett Dresden. After the Horn Foundation was liquidated in 1954, the coin collection was initially loaned to the Münzkabinett in Berlin as a contractually secured loan . There the collection should be scientifically processed and cataloged. It didn't come to that. When the Berlin Münzkabinett's own coin collection came back from the Soviet Union , the collection went to the Münzkabinett Dresden in 1963. Again there was a loan agreement with the city of Meissen. In Dresden, too, the coin collection was to be scientifically organized and cataloged. In the 1980s, the city of Meissen tried to bring the collection back from Dresden immediately. The Münzkabinett Dresden rejected this at the time. Further attempts to return the coin collection failed due to resistance from the Dresden Münzkabinett. Even after 1990 the city of Meißen tried unsuccessfully to bring back the coin collection. There was a legal dispute and in the judgment of 1998 the city of Meissen was denied any claim to the Horn coin collection. Only the Horn Foundation was entitled to this. Horn had not fully recorded the collection until 1945. However, after 1945 there were an unknown number of post-war losses, which can be explained with relocations, looting and post-war chaos. There are also a few copies in the Meißen city archive. An unknown number served as remuneration for people commissioned by the estate administration at the time. In addition, 400 medals and show coins that were recovered from the cesspool of the Horn residential building after the end of World War II have disappeared without a trace. The Münzkabinett Dresden was able to acquire 10,554 significant pieces from the total inventory of 46,042 copies (as of February 2014). The seal collection was estimated at around 6,000 objects. Coins and medals from the Horn Collection were auctioned in four auctions by the Künker auction house from 2014 to 2016.

Memorial and burial place

So far there has been no major honor for Ernst Otto Horn. In the city museum of Meißen there are various exhibits from the former horn collection to see and to learn about the person in the permanent exhibition. The Horn family burial site was preserved and is located in the southwestern part of the Frauenkirchfriedhof at the Meißen crematorium . The urn with the remains of Ernst Otto Horn was also buried there on November 19, 1945. The Horn grave complex was in a neglected condition for decades: The old tombstone of his father (also Ernst Otto Horn senior) was only leaning against the cemetery wall, the blackboard with the inscription "Family Horn" was no longer visible, completely dirty and from overgrown wild climbing plants.

When the horn collection became more of a public interest and many of its exhibits were auctioned, the interest in the preserved grave returned, especially among numismatists. There was public criticism of the condition of the tomb. The city of Meißen and the Emma and Otto Horn Foundation did not see themselves as contact persons for permanent grave maintenance. In September 2017 there was an initiative by journalists and numismatists, which also actively supported the Meissen crematorium. The grave complex was then prepared and autumn planting was carried out. Furthermore, both groups tried to mediate and find a permanent solution to the problem of future grave maintenance, and there were also appeals for donations abroad. This did not succeed, however, and attempts at mediation by an auction house also failed. In July 2018, the grave complex was again in a neglected state. In autumn 2018 there was again horticultural help from the Meissen crematorium. In the meantime there is new hope, because help for 2019 was offered from various sides. The grave site is currently in a worthy condition and is maintained by the responsible cemetery administration.

• Changing condition of the Horn family's grave complex
• 

  The Horn family was grave until September 2017

• 

  Grave state of the Horn family after cleaning and planting in September 2017

• 

  Another unkempt grave state of the Horn family in July 2018

• 

  Well-tended grave condition of the Horn family in April 2019

• 

  A well-tended grave condition in June 2019

Fonts

• The coins and medals from the state porcelain manufacture in Meissen. Hiersemann, Meissen 1923.
• Various other manuscripts about his collection of coins and medals, his collection of historical seals and his travels to Africa were published in Meißen in small editions until 1945.

literature

• Helmuth Gröger: A thousand years of Meissen. Klinkicht & Sohn, Meißen 1929.
• Karl Scheuch: Porcelain medals from the Meissen State Porcelain Manufactory. Volume 4: Issue locations M (Meissen only) to Z. Strothotte, Gütersloh 1970.
• Gerhard Steinecke: Our Meißen 1929-2004. 75 years without glory and halo in and around Schnabelweide. Verlag des Meißner Tageblattes, Meißen 2004, ISBN 3-929705-09-5 .
• Günter Naumann: City Lexicon Meißen. Sax, Beucha 2009, ISBN 978-3-86729-013-5 .
• numiscontrol: The fate of a coin collection or The dispute over the collection from the "Otto and Emma Horn Foundation". In: MünzenRevue. Vol. 42, Issue 6, 2010, ISSN  0254-461X , p. 14.
• numiscontrol: The future of the Horn coin collection. In: MünzenRevue. Vol. 42, Issue 5, 2011, p. 24.
• Reiner Graff, Angela Graff: Graves have their own fate. In: Numispost. Issue 2, 2017, ZDB -ID 2533110-3 , pp. 61–62.
• Reiner Graff: Otto Horn contrasts around a Meißner universal collector. Print version with photos of the manuscript for the public lecture on September 9, 2018 in the Meißen crematorium. Self-published, 2018.

Web links

• Homepage of the Emma and Otto Horn Foundation in Meißen.Retrieved on August 4, 2020 .
• Reiner Graff: Horn, Ernst Otto . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Hrsg.): Sächsische Biographie ., Accessed on August 4, 2020 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Catalog for Künker auction 255, various articles and essays on Ernst Otto Horn and his collections from pages 19 to 27.
2. ^ Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, 10711 Ministry of the Royal House, Vol. XVII., Loc. 25, No. 13, Acta concerning the granting of court awards, Ao 1899.
3. ↑ Address books of the city of Meißen from 1887, 1890, 1893, 1900, 1908, 1914, 1916, 1921, 1926, 1939, 1950.
4. ^ Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, 10711 Ministry of the Royal House, Volume 35, Loc 25, No. 38, files relating to the granting of court awards, 1918.
5. ^ Archives of the Meißen crematorium.
6. ^ Homepage of the Otto and Emma Horn Foundation in the press review with various newspaper reports.
7. ↑ Reiner Graff: Manuscript for the lecture Otto Horn - Contrasts around a Meißner universal collector , on September 9, 2018 in the Meißen crematorium.
8. ↑ Dresden Latest News , October 17, 2015.
9. ^ Sächsische Zeitung , October 26, 2015.
10. ^ Sächsische Zeitung , January 14, 2016.
11. ↑ Catalog for the Künker auction 255 with part 1 of the Horn coin collection.
12. ↑ New ideas for Hornsche's grave. In: Sächsische Zeitung , from November 24, 2016.
13. ↑ Reiner Graff, Angela Graff: Graves have their own fate. In: Numispost. Issue 2, 2017, pp. 61–62.