Georg Speyer

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Portrait by Georg Speyer 1873

Georg Speyer (until 1857 Gustav Speyer ; born January 1, 1835 in Frankfurt am Main ; † April 24, 1902 there ) was a German banker and Frankfurt patron .

life and work

Georg Speyer was born as Gustav Speyer on January 1, 1835 into the Jewish banking family Speyer . His father was the banker Lazarus Joseph Speyer, his mother his cousin Therese Ellisen. The birth took place in the presence of the doctor Johann Michael Mappes in Frankfurt. He grew up in his hometown and attended the Philanthropin there . He completed his commercial training in the branches of the family company Lazard Speyer-Ellissen in New York and London.

In 1854 Gustav Speyer wanted to move to New York to study in the shop of his uncle Gumperz Speyer, who went under the name Gustav Speyer. His father therefore applied to the Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt on January 21, 1854, to rename his son's name to Georg. Gumperz had performed longer than Gustav and became a partner in his bank under this name. Only on December 17, 1857 were both renaming approved.

In 1862 Georg Speyer became an authorized signatory , in 1868 a partner in his father's bank in Frankfurt, where he held a managerial position until his death. In 1869 Georg Speyer married the Berlin banker's daughter Franziska Gumbert (1844–1909). Their only child, Alfred, was born on July 29, 1871. As Alfred suffered from an intellectual disability, he was under guardianship until his death in 1927 . In 1875 Speyer moved with his family to Westendstrasse.

social commitment

In addition to his professional activity in Frankfurt, Speyer appeared in public primarily as a sponsor of social, artistic and scientific institutions. He was co-founder and deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the stock building company for small apartments (1890), which, with the support of other Frankfurt patrons, set up club houses, reading and lecture halls , kindergartens and day nurseries in their residential areas . Speyer sponsored an association for people's kindergartens and in 1899 was a co-founder and member of the advisory board of the Centrale for private welfare in Frankfurt. His membership in the board of the Society for Research on Jewish Cultural Monuments and in the Association for the Defense against Anti-Semitism testify to his socio-political engagement in Wilhelminian Germany in the pre-war period .

Patronage

Georg Speyer played an important role in founding and expanding Frankfurt University . In addition to Wilhelm Merton and other Frankfurt sponsors, he supported the work of Mayor Franz Adickes . For example, he financed two chairs at the Academy for Social and Commercial Sciences , which opened in 1901 and which can be considered the forerunner of the university, from the funds of the Georg and Franziska Speyer'sche Studienstiftung, which was set up for this purpose together with his wife .

After Speyer's death, his wife Franziska Speyer vigorously continued her husband's work, and in 1902 she was able to fall back on an endowment of 31 million marks . Her brother-in-law, Ludwig Darmstaedter , made her aware of Paul Ehrlich's research, which her husband had already promoted. In 1906 she donated one million marks to establish a chemotherapeutic research institute. It was intended to serve Ehrlich's work, but at the same time it was intended as the central building ( Georg-Speyer-Haus ) of an academy for practical medicine on the grounds of the municipal hospital (today the University Clinic Frankfurt am Main ) on Sandhofstrasse in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen .

After Franziska Speyer's death, the foundations set up by the Speyer couple were topped up from the estate by the executor Eduard Beit von Speyer (1860–1933), a son-in-law of Gustav Speyer, and supplemented by additional facilities.

After the National Socialist seizure of power , all Speyer's foundations were " Aryanized " as Jewish institutions and renamed or added to other foundations. The Lazard Speyer-Ellissen banking house was liquidated in 1934. In 1949 the most important institutions were re-established as the Georg and Franziska Speyer'sche Hochschulstiftung .

Honors

Georg Speyer's grave in the old Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil-Strasse in Frankfurt am Main

Speyer was a permanent member of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society . In 1896 he received the Prussian Order of the Crown IV. Class and in 1901 the Order of the Crown III. Class awarded.

The asteroid (225 250) Georgfranziska was named in honor of the couple on October 12, 2011.

One street each in Frankfurt-Bockenheim and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe is named after him. His grave and that of his wife are in the old Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minor Planet Circulars # 76676. (PDF) In: Minor Planet Center . October 12, 2011, accessed July 23, 2017 .
  2. ^ Knerger.de: The grave of Georg Speyer
personal data
SURNAME Speyer, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Speyer, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker and patron
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1902
Place of death Frankfurt am Main