Georges Passavant

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Georges Passavant (* 1862 ; † 1952 ) was a Swiss banker and photographer .

life and work

Georges Passavant (1862–1952), traveling photographer, criminal and banker, grave at Wolfgottesacker cemetery, Basel
Grave in the Wolfgottesacker cemetery , Basel

He was the youngest of six children of the banker Emanuel Passavant (1817–1879) from the bank Passavant & Cie. in Basel and his wife Adèle, née Bachofen (1823–1883). His maternal uncle was the Swiss art historian Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–1887).

Passavant studied in Leipzig and became a member of the Corps Saxonia there in 1883 . Likewise wealthy by inheritance at a young age, Georges undertook a world tour from 1888 to 1889 at the age of 26, which took him to North America, Japan, China as well as Java, Thailand and India. At the end of his world tour, he married Maria Fichter, born in 1863, in 1889. From 1892 he worked as a criminal judge in Basel and was also a banker and colonel in the Swiss Army. His field artillery unit 13 of the Basel battery celebrated him on June 16, 1932 with a march through Basel on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Passavant had of Robert Rosenthal of the owners of the EOS movie Basel, his 1917 'rights on behalf of the Swiss Army produced fifty-minute long silent movie The Swiss Army -L'Armée Suisse bought and prepared for 1,000 Swiss francs a copy of it. The only copy that was in the possession of the army itself had suffered badly during the war from the countless demonstrations. Passavant agreed that the film could be shown in Argentina . The success was so great that it was also shown in Brazil , Uruguay , Chile and Paraguay .

photography

Like his older brother Carl Passavant (1854–1887), Georges was also very interested in photography. Both brothers owned their own photographic equipment but preferred to purchase and collect footage from local photographers on their travels. In Africa these were traveling photographers, in the Chinese cities there had been numerous photo studios since 1860.

The photographic estate of both brothers was deposited in the Museum der Kulturen in Basel for many years . The two founding figures of this museum in Basel were their cousins ​​Fritz and Paul Sarasin , inspired by their first trip to Ceylon . A small part of the originals can be found in an exhibition " The foreign in view " of the museum.

literature

  • The foreign in view: Carl and Georges Passavant: Travel photographs from Africa and China, 1883–1889 , Basel, Museum der Kulturen 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 96, 563
  2. ↑ 1917, movie. The Swiss Army -L'Armée Suisse. Retrieved June 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Passavant, Georges
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss banker and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH 1862
DATE OF DEATH 1952