Georg Spiegelberg (banker)

Georg (with an emperor's beard) and his wife Caroline Spiegelberg; Created in
1903 by Ernst Oppler , oil on canvas; Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover

Georg Spiegelberg (born September 28, 1848 in Lauenstein (Salzhemmendorf) ; died June 18, 1913 in Cologne ) was a German banker and art collector from a Jewish family and named after the Georg Spiegelberg Foundation .

Life

Bank founder Alexander Spiegelberg (died 1878);
around 1860, presumably a reproduction of a daguerreotype

Georg Spiegelberg was born at the beginning of industrialization in the Kingdom of Hanover in the small town of Lauenstein am Ith as the son of Alexander Spiegelberg (d. 1878). The family had already operated an important business for the town at the (today's) address Im Flecken No. 53 for decades before Alexander Spiegelberg founded the A. Spiegelberg bank in the then royal seat of Hanover in 1854 .

Georg Spiegelberg joined his father 's bank in Hanover as a partner in 1866 while his father was still alive . When the company's founder died in 1878 after the proclamation of the German Empire , Georg Spiegelberg and his younger brother Hermann continued the bank. During the general economic upswing in the early days of the company , Spiegelberg and his bank promoted the Hanoverian economic life in particular and participated several times in both the establishment and administration of new stock corporations .

Spiegelberg's house at Landschaftstrasse 1 , acquired in 1895 ;
Photo edited by Ewald Steinmetz

Shortly before the turn of the 20th century, Spiegelberg acquired a corner building on Landschaftstrasse in 1895 and had it converted into a representative office building for the bank - the building thus also marked the beginning of the development of today's banking district in Hanover.

Kommerzienrat Georg Spiegelberg, around 1905

In 1903 Spiegelberg, who had been interested in the arts and crafts since his youth, had himself portrayed together with his wife in a large double portrait by the painter Ernst Oppler , which later found its way into the collection of the Landesgalerie of the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover .

Georg Spiegelberg, appointed Kommerzienrat in 1906 , had "[...] with subtle connoisseurship amalgamated a remarkable art collection " for which a catalog from 1910 contained more than 650 numbers, mainly furniture, arts and crafts, paintings, graphics and drawings , Miniatures, jewelry and East Asian items , with a focus on portrait miniatures and porcelain.

In 1913, the year Georg Spiegelberg died, his younger brother Hermann, who continued to run the Hanover bank, was honored with the award of the title of Kommerzienrat.

Georg Spiegelberg was buried in the large family grave at the Engesohde city cemetery . His son, who was named Dr. jur. excellent Friedrich Spiegelberg (born June 25, 1891 in Hanover; died March 14, 1975 there), did not join the Spiegelberg bank until 1922.

After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, the banker and later Gau economic consultant Julius Albert Maier was able to acquire the A. Spiegelberg bank, including the customer base and building, excluding the Jewish employees, and his own private bank Julius Maier in the course of the " Aryanizations " in November 1936 & Comp. incorporate. It was later to merge into the Hallbaum bank .

Friedrich Spiegelberg and his family, however, had to leave Hanover and Germany and emigrated to Brazil , from where the family only returned to Hanover after the end of the National Socialist era . However, art treasures from the possession of the Spiegelberg family came back to Hanover from their exile in Brazil and later became part of the Georg Spiegelberg Commercial Councilor Foundation .

2010 Hamelin historians suggested Bernhard Gelderblom the Lauensteiner citizens, as well as in Lauensteiner Jewish cemetery as well as the former house Spiegelberg in the road in spots 53 a memorial information board to bring about the Jewish citizens lukewarm stone what the Ortsrat wanted to ensure.

"Georg Spiegelmann Commercial Council Foundation"

First foundations

While Georg Spiegelberg was still alive, from 1909 and until 1914 for a time together with family members Hermann and Eduard Spiegelberg, the then Provincial Museum Hanover and the predecessor of today's Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover with a number of works of art such as paintings by Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann which represent "[...] today a very important part of the collections of the Landesgalerie Hannover".

Endowments 1982

With the return of Georg Spiegelberg's son Fritz and his family from exile in Brazil to Hanover, art treasures such as paintings and drawings by various artists came back to Hanover. After the death of Friedrich Spiegelberg's widow in 1982, numerous pieces were handed over to the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover, which were labeled “Stiftung Kommerzienrat Georg Spiegelberg”. Further acquisitions for the State Museum were made from the proceeds from the sale of the Spiegelberg House and other legacies.

See also

• History of the Jews in Hanover

literature

• Paul Siedentopf (chief editor): Bankhaus A. Spiegelberg. In: ders .: The book of the old companies of the city of Hanover in 1927. With the help of Karl Friedrich Leonhardt (compilation of the image material). Jubilee publisher Walter Gerlach, Leipzig 1927, p. 151.
• Hans Werner Grohn : From the collection of the Kommerzienrat Georg Spiegelberg. In: Weltkunst , Heft 7, Verlag Kunst und Technik, Munich 1985, p. 982ff.

Web links

Commons : Georg Spiegelberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ Deviating from this, DeWeZet of February 24, 2010 (sd) names the year the bank was founded as 1855.
2. ↑ Deviating from this, it was noted: “[...] Siedelte 1895 from Schillerstr. in a new building in Landschaftstr. [...] over"; compare Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Spiegelberg, Georg. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover. P. 576.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Spiegelberg, Georg. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 576.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Paul Siedentopf (main editor): Bankhaus A. Spiegelberg. In: ders .: The book of the old companies of the city of Hanover in 1927. Jubilee publishing house Walter Gerlach, Leipzig 1927, p. 151.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} hen: Dealing with the cemetery “no fame sheet” / Hamelin historian suggests memorial plaques / Outstanding: History of the Spiegelberg family. On the DeWeZet website of February 24, 2010, accessed on October 14, 2016.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Spiegelberg, Georg. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 341; online through google books
5. ^ Ingo Köhler: The "Aryanization" of the private banks in the Third Reich. Repression, elimination and the question of reparation. CH Beck, 2nd edition, Munich 2008, p. 147 u. ö .: online via Google books
6. ↑ Henneke Lütgerath, Eckhard Fiene, Peter Rentrop-Schmid (Resp.): History of Bank Hall tree. From mmwarburggruppe.com , accessed on October 13, 2016.