Hermann Ilgen

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Portrait of Hermann Ilgen on the Obelisk Helmut-Schön-Allee

Friedrich Hermann Ilgen (* 22. July 1856 in Wurzen ; † 15. April 1940 in Dresden ) was a Saxon pharmacist , entrepreneur and sports and arts patron .

Life

Ilgen's pharmacy in Kötzschenbroda, around 1890

Ilgen was born on July 22, 1856 in Wurzen into a middle-class family. According to his father Ferdinand Ilgen's wish, he should study theology , but under the influence of his mother Wilhelmine Ilgen, he received his father's consent to train as a pharmacist or to study pharmacy . Ilgen completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in the Erzgebirge, followed by three years of practical experience as a pharmacist's assistant, before enrolling in 1878 to study pharmacy and chemistry at the University of Leipzig ; among other things he studied there with Hermann Kolbe . In Leipzig, Ilgen was a member of what was then the Pharmaceutical-Natural Science Association (later the Corps Vandalia Leipzig). After a very good graduation, he worked as an employed pharmacist in Freiberg from 1880 .

In 1882 (and probably not until 1888) Ilgen took over the run-down "Löwen-Apotheke" in Bahnhofstrasse in Kötzschenbroda for the enormous purchase price of 120,000 marks , which he ran until 1891 after a complete renovation of the building and rooms. During this time Ilgen brought a new type of rat and mouse poison onto the market, the phosphor pill , which he was able to sell successfully worldwide, which earned him the nickname “Mouse Death” in addition to a large fortune. The purchase price is explained by the fact that Ilgen's predecessor had already produced the mouse poison in his pharmacy. To increase the "attractiveness for the mice", Ilgen sent his phosphor pills, which were produced in a shed nearby, in wooden boxes in which salted meat had previously been transported, the smell of which was transferred to the shipping goods.

In 1883 Ilgen married Anna Mathilde Steffen from Leipzig, which made him related to the wealthy Leipzig building officer Otto Heinrich Steffen. His wife owned valuable land near what is now Leipzig Central Station . In the same year Ilgen co-founded the Sparkasse in Kötzschenbroda , which moved into a building right next to his pharmacy.

After the sale of the pharmacy that still exists today in 1892, 1893 or 1894, Ilgen moved to Dresden, where he dealt with real estate business in Dresden and Leipzig. Successful here too, the childless couple used large parts of their acquired wealth to promote and support cultural, social and sporting institutions. Ilgen set up several foundations, including the " Hermann Ilgen Foundation ", and launched prizes. From 1932 onwards, Leipzig University was able to award a “Goethe Medal” every year and received a youth portrait of Goethe and three altar panels by the painter Hans Hesse from a collection. The university was to receive a total of 350,000 Reichsmarks.

The pulpit with the Ilgen portrait head in St. Marien Cathedral in Wurzen

Best known was his support for the Dresden sports system. For example, he financed the Ilgen-Kampfbahn , which was inaugurated in 1923 and named after him in 1937 , the Dynamo Dresden venue , now known as the Dresden Stadium .

Villa Ilgen

In 1929 the Privy Councilor Hermann Ilgen was made an honorary citizen of his native Wurzen, and in 1932 an honorary senator of the TH Dresden . On his 78th birthday, Leipzig University awarded him the title of Honorary Senator. In 1936, on his 80th birthday, a street in the Radebeul district of Kötzschenbroda was named. There is also Hermann-Ilgen-Strasse in Wurzen, the city of birth.

Grave of Hermann Ilgen in the Johannisfriedhof in Dresden

From 1899 Ilgen lived in the villa Ilgen named after him in the Dresden villa suburb of Blasewitz . He died in 1940, four years after his wife; both graves are located in the Dresden Johannisfriedhof .

The “Hermann Ilgen Foundation” still exists today, although a significant part of the property was destroyed in the Second World War. Its foundation statutes were revised in 1993 in line with the founder.

On June 27, 1881 Ilgen was admitted to the Freemason Lodge Charlotte to the three carnations in Meiningen; on January 5, 1927, he became a member of the Golden Apple Lodge in Dresden.

In 2000 he was voted one of the “100 Dresdeners of the 20th Century” in the daily newspaper “ Dresdner Latest News ”.

Ilgen and the cathedral in Wurzen

Hermann Ilgen was the main sponsor of the renovation of the Wurzen Cathedral at the beginning of the 1930s . At that time, the sculptor Georg Wrba was won over for the extensive redesign of the interior of the cathedral in 1931/1932 . He created a cycle of late Expressionist sculptures made of cast bronze , which still dominate the interior of the cathedral today: the crucifixion group in the chancel, the lectern as a figure of a naked athlete and in the east choir four canons' chairs on both sides with the names of the canons of the time. The bronze pulpit is outstanding in the literal sense of the word : the heads of the apostles at the base of the pulpit basket bear the facial features of the canons of the time, those of the artist and also those of Wurzen's honorary citizen and later canon Hermann Ilgen, to whom a plaque is also dedicated.

Fonts

  • Hermann Ilgen: My life's work as a friendly reminder (in memory of a mother) . (Autobiography.) Verlag Erich Gottschalk, Dresden 1937, OCLC 552017822 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d journal (PDF; 1.5 MB) ( Memento from May 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) University of Leipzig. May / June 2005. Issue 3/2005, pp. 40f.
  2. ↑ a b c Radebeuler Official Journal, April 2010 (PDF file; 695 kB)
  3. ↑ a b History of the Radebeul City Pharmacy
  4. ↑ Hermann Ilgen's biography is presented - Official Gazette 11/2013 from November 17, 2013 ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 6.6 MB)
  5. ↑ 100 Dresden residents of the 20th century . In: Dresdner Latest News . Dresdner Nachrichten GmbH & Co. KG, Dresden December 31, 1999, p. 22 .
  6. ↑ Starting at the pulpit stairs: Ludwig Ihmels as Matthias, Johannes Wiede as Simon Zelotes, Richard Weidauer as Matthäus, Börries von Münchhausen as Thomas, Paul Herfurth as Andreas, Gotthard von Pentz as Jakobus, at the lectern above Friedrich Krug von Nidda and von Falkenstein as Paulus, Hermann Ilgen as Petrus, Hans Wrba (son of the artist Georg Wrba) as Johannes, Alfred Ackermann as Philippus, Friedrich Seetzen as Bartholomäus, Paul Geipel as Thaddäus, Georg Wrba as Jakobus Alphäus
  7. ↑ This bronze plaque the size of a front door is located in the middle of the cathedral on the left with a view of the altar. It has the following inscription: “Honorary memory for Hermann Ilgen - Royal Saxon Privy Councilor, born in Wurzen on July 22, 1856, honorary citizen of the city of Wurzen and founder of the Hermann Ilgen Foundation, from whose funds the war honorary place on this site with the approval of the founder old cemetery and the altarpiece of this cathedral was made. Dedicated to Anno Domini 1930 by the Hermann Ilgen Foundation by its board: Minister of State and Canon zu Wurzen Dr. Friedrich Krug von Nidda and von Falkenstein ”.
personal data
SURNAME Ilgen, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ilgen, Friedrich Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist and entrepreneur, sports and art patron
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Spice up
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1940
Place of death Dresden