Hermann Oelrichs

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from left to right: Hermann Oelrichs Jr., Theresa Tessie Alice Oelrichs, Muriel and Consuelo Vanderbilt, around 1910

Hermann Oelrichs (born June 8, 1850 in Baltimore , Maryland , † September 1, 1906 on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große in the Atlantic Ocean ) was an American banker , multimillionaire and co-owner of the North German Lloyd shipping company .

Life

Hermann Oelrichs was the grandson of the Bremen businessman Johann Gerhard Oelrichs . He studied at St. Paul's School in Concord , New Hampshire , and later at Yale University ; as a Yale student he was accepted into the local Skull & Bones secret society.

In 1890 he married in San Francisco the rich heiress Theresa Alice Fair (1862-1926), called Tessie , eldest daughter of the silver mine owner and Senator from Nevada James Graham Fair (1831-1894) and his first wife Theresa Rooney (* 1838). The son Hermann Oelrichs Jr. (1891–1941) emerged from the marriage, which all reports said was a happy one .

The Oelrichs family played a major role in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake under the Committee of Fifty . The family also owned the luxury hotel The Fairmont in San Francisco.

Rosecliff Mansion

In the 19th century Newport on Rhode Iceland a popular summer residence of the US plutocracy ( Gilded Age , Gilded Age ). After the death of the politician George Bancroft - breeder of the American Beauty rose - Oelrichs bought the fourteen-acre property right by the sea and on Bellevue Avenue, called Rosecliff . Between 1898 and 1902 Hermann and Tessie Oelrichs had the palace -like summer house Rosecliff Mansion built by the well-known architect Stanford White - designed in the French Beaux Arts style based on the Grand Trianon . The property remained in the possession of the Oelrichs family until 1941; today it is a museum and can be visited.

The legendary film adaptations of The Top Ten Thousand (1956) with Grace Kelly , The Great Gatsby (1974) with Robert Redford , True Lies (1994) with Arnold Schwarzenegger , and Amistad (1997) with Matthew McConaughey in the leading roles were filmed here .

Worth mentioning

  • Shark attacks on the coast of New Jersey (1916) : In 1891, the wealthy banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a price of 500 US dollars for evidence that a person had been attacked by a shark in ocean waters of the temperate climate zone. The reward was never claimed.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Capuzzo, Close to Shore , page 22
personal data
SURNAME Oelrichs, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American banker, multimillionaire and co-owner of North German Lloyd
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1906
Place of death Atlantic ocean