Ernst Schneider (entrepreneur, 1900)

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Ernst Georg Schneider (born October 6, 1900 in Heldenbergen , today Nidderau , † September 22, 1977 ) was a German entrepreneur and president of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).

Entrepreneur

After graduating from high school in 1918, he studied at the University of Frankfurt a. M. Economics , social and law . In 1921 he completed his studies with a degree in business administration and received his doctorate in 1922. In 1925 he became a junior partner in Siegfried Arndt's group of companies , the most important of which were the Odol plants. In the following years the group of companies, which included chemical, cosmetic and steel processing companies, expanded.

With the seizure of power by the Nazis as a Jew Arndt had to leave Germany and emigrated to the United States. As part of the " Aryanization ", Ernst Schneider acquired his shares in order to keep them in trust. After 1945 he returned the company to his business partner. Schneider also got into conflict with the National Socialists and was briefly arrested in Cologne. However, he was then able to continue his business.

After Arndt left in 1955, his shares were taken over by the Bank C. G. Trinkaus and the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft . Companies that belonged to Schneider's Holding "Kohlensäure-Industrie AG" were among others. a. Lingner-Werke GmbH (“Odol”), the steel and apparatus construction companies Hein, Lehmann & Co. AG and Hilgers AG , Rheinbrohl.

Until his retirement, Schneider played a key role in the economic reconstruction of the western zones. After the fatal accident of his only son in 1968, he sold his group of companies and withdrew from all offices. From 1970 until his death he lived on the upper floor of the south wing of Lustheim Palace near Munich, above his collection of Meissen porcelain. His tombstone can also be found in Lustheim Palace today.

Association activities

Ernst Schneider was President of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1949 to 1968 and President of the German Association of Industry and Commerce from 1963 to 1969 .

Patrons of the arts and collectors

Lustheim Palace near Munich
Ballroom of Lustheim Palace

Ernst Schneider was committed to promoting the arts. He supported museums, art associations and theaters and was, among other things, a member of the supervisory board of the Neue Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf , co-founder and board member of today's Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen , member of the board of trustees of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and the Folkwang Museum in Essen, founding member and board member of the Society of Ceramics -Freunde , Düsseldorf, board member of the Swiss Ceramic Friends , Zurich, and initiator of the Ceramica Foundation in Basel.

In addition to this commitment, Ernst Schneider collected paintings and graphics from the early 20th century as well as handicrafts from the 18th century and especially Meissen porcelain . On the flight from his Moholz estate near Niesky in Upper Lusatia to Düsseldorf in 1945, he managed to save his porcelain collection. Baroque silver work, on the other hand, was destroyed during the transport during the air raids on Dresden .

From 1955 Ernst Schneider showed porcelain, silver objects and baroque furniture on the upper floor of Schloss Jägerhof in Düsseldorf, where parts of the collection can still be seen today. But the space was soon too cramped for the ever-growing collection. Impressed by the Meissen Porcelain 1710-1810 exhibition shown in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich in 1966 , for which Schneider loaned around 300 exhibits, he decided to donate to the Free State of Bavaria.

After the renovation, Lustheim Palace was established in 1971 as the first branch museum of the Bavarian National Museum. Since then, it has housed Schneider's Meißen porcelain collection, the scope and importance of which is comparable to the porcelain collection in the Dresden Zwinger. The presentation of the more than 2000 Meissen porcelains offers an insight into the diversity of the products of the Meissen manufactory and their inventiveness in the first decades from their foundation in 1710 to the time of the Seven Years' War .

Honors

The Ernst Schneider Prize , the author's prize for outstanding economic contributions, donated by the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, is named after Ernst Schneider .

The city of Düsseldorf named Ernst-Schneider-Platz after him. The IHK Düsseldorf is now based at Ernst-Schneider-Platz 1.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia awarded him the title of professor and the Düsseldorf Medical Academy an honorary doctorate.

Ernst Schneider was awarded the Golden Medal of Honor of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Alexander-Rüstow-Plaque (1969), the Great Ring of Honor of the City of Düsseldorf (1960) as well as the Great Order of Merit with a star (1964) and the Great Order of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon (1969) the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1975 Ernst Schneider was made an honorary citizen of the city of Nidderau . In 1983 the "Ernst Schneider Memorial Fountain" was inaugurated in Heldenbergen .

In 1996 the Ernst-Schneider-Weg in the Am Hart district of Munich was named after him.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annette Schommers et al. Martina Grigat / Bavarian National Museum (ed.): Meissen porcelain from the 18th century. The Ernst Schneider Foundation in Lustheim Palace . CH Beck: Munich 2004; ISBN 3-406-51905-9 , pp. 50, 51
  2. ^ Homepage of the Hetjens Museum, German Ceramics Museum Düsseldorf
  3. ↑ Homepage of the Meißen porcelain collection Ernst Schneider Foundation in Lustheim Palace
  4. ^ Entry Schneider, Ernst Georg in the New German Biography
  5. ↑ Ernst-Schneider-Weg. In: muenchen.de. Retrieved June 12, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Schneider, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneider, Ernst Georg (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and President of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK)
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Heldenbergen , today Nidderau
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1977