Gustav Gerst

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Gustav Gerst (* 1871 in Bamberg , † 1948 in New York ) was a German retail trade - merchant and warehouse - entrepreneurs .

Life

Gustav Gerst was married to Ella Tietz, a daughter of Markus Tietz (1849–1901) and Julie Tietz b. Baumann (1853-1930). Her father Markus' older brother was Hermann Tietz , the financier of the four related Tietz companies that were founded at the time. The married couple Markus and Julie Tietz had several children:

  • Antonie (born August 14, 1877; † nn) married Martin Ephraim, their son was Max Rudolf Ephraim (born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt am Main; † February 28, 1995 in Philadelphia, PA., USA)
  • Arthur Tietz (born January 15, 1879; † nn)
  • Ella Tietz (born January 6, 1881; † November 1974 New York) married. Barley
  • Johanna Tietz (born November 24, 1884; † nn)
H. & C. Tietz department store built in Bamberg in 1910
(left) Tietz department store, Zeil 116–122

In 1886 Gerst's later father-in-law Markus Tietz moved with his wife Julie from Prenzlau to Bamberg at the age of 37 and also relocated the headquarters of the department store company H. & C. Tietz there . After the death of her husband, Julie Tietz took over the management of the Bamberg company in 1901 . In 1910 she had a large new department store built by the Bamberg architect Johannes Kronfuß on the Grüner Markt 23-27 property. In 1919, one year after the end of the First World War, Julie Tietz handed over management to her second son-in-law Gustav Gerst. In 1919 Gustav and Ella Gerst, née Tietz (1881–1974), moved to Frankfurt am Main with their mother-in-law, Julie, as shareholders of H. & C. Tietz. Gustav Gerst managed the branch there and the entire H. & C. Tietz company. The Gersts took up residence in the Villa Niederräder Landstrasse 10.

The wealthy Gerst couple quickly integrated into the wealthy Frankfurt bourgeoisie. Gerst bought paintings and soon had a not insignificant collection, including a. with works by

Goethe Tower in the Frankfurt city forest
Foundation sign on the Goethe Tower

After appropriate donations, Gustav Gerst was given honorary citizenship of the young Frankfurt University . Initially anonymous, but lasting was his donation of 28,000 Reichsmarks (today's value approx. 350,000 euros) to the Frankfurt forest master Hans Bernhard Jacobi for the rebuilding of the Frankfurt Goethe Tower in 1931 . However, in line with the political zeitgeist of the time, he attached two conditions to his donation: firstly, he never wanted to be named and, secondly, it should be ensured that the new Goethe Tower would last for 200 years. On November 23, 1931, the new Goethe Tower was inaugurated with an extremely simple ceremony. This donation only became public after his death while emigrating to the USA in 1948.

After the Second World War, the city of Frankfurt am Main renamed an entrance to the Goetheturm, near Mörfelder Landstrasse, to Gerstweg in his honor.

According to Gerst's lawyer, who defended his claims for repayment after the war, Gustav Gerst's fortune amounted to 18,185,000 Reichsmarks in 1933. Because of his Jewish descent, living and working in Frankfurt am Main and in Germany became very difficult for him and his family after 1933. In October 1935 he lost his position and his shares in the department store company H. & C. Tietz after state threats and persecution. He gave his art collection to the Frankfurt art dealer Julius Hahn for sale.

The Gerst couple managed to flee to the USA via Gothenburg in 1937 . In the course of the " Aryanization " of all the Tietz family's department stores, the Bamberg branch, which was a thorn in the side of many retailers there, was completely liquidated in 1939 . After a refund procedure, the Bamberg building was reopened as the Hertie department store in 1951. The house was taken over by the Karstadt Group in 1994 and renamed Karstadt.

The Nazi Gauleiter School "Jakob-Sprenger-Schule", which had previously set up in the Villa Manskopf in 1933, moved into Gustav Gerst's villa in Frankfurt am Main.

Shortly after the Gersts fled to Sweden , Kurt Thomas , the director of the Musisches Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main, moved into an official apartment that had been confiscated for him.

Gustav Gerst's shares were ultimately taken over by Georg Karg , a former executive of the Tietz Group, and transferred to Hertie Kaufhaus-Beteiligungs-GmbH . All shares had to be sold at a lower value to this company, whose sole owner was Georg Karg. After the initially very successful restart after the end of the Second World War, the Hertie Group was later sold to the Karstadt-Quelle Group, which went to the Austrian Signa Holding in 2013 .

As early as 1946, Gustav Gerst submitted an application for the return of his painting collection to the Allies, which, however, rejected it after questioning the surviving art dealer Julius Hahn. Gustav Gerst died in the USA in 1948. It is unclear whether there were any further attempts at recovery. Little information about the paintings has survived, so it is difficult to identify them. Only the Liebermann painting “Korso auf dem Monte Pincio” (1912) probably reappeared in 1992 at an auction in the Franke Art Salon in Cologne (no provenance information). Then the track is lost.

The claims for reimbursement made by the Gersts after the war, particularly against Hertie GmbH, were only partially successful.


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gustav Gerst's donation for the rebuilding of the Goethe Tower in the Frankfurt city forest (PDF file)
  2. ^ Gustav Gerst painting collection
  3. ↑ Gerstweg - street names in Frankfurt
  4. ↑ Villa Manskopf ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Postcard of the former Villa Gustav Gerst in Frankfurt, Niederräder Str. 10, the later confiscated NS-GAULEITERSCHULE "Jakob-Sprenger-Schule"
  6. ^ Collection of paintings by the married couple Gustav Gerst and Ella Tietz in Frankfurt am Main
  7. ↑ Monica Kingreens lecture from June 1, 2000: How Museums Appropriated Art from Jewish Ownership
  8. ↑ From 1941 the Frankfurt art dealer Julius Hahn continued the business of the arrested Frankfurt art dealer Wilhelm Ettle.
personal data
SURNAME Gerst, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German retail merchant, department store entrepreneur and founder
DATE OF BIRTH 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH 1948
Place of death New York City