Hermann Weil (entrepreneur)

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Hermann Weil

Hermann Weil (born September 18, 1868 in Steinsfurt ; † October 3, 1927 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German-Argentine entrepreneur. Around 1910 he was considered the most important grain dealer in the world. He was a patron of his hometown Steinsfurt and the University of Frankfurt and is known as the founder of the Institute for Social Research .

Life

He was the tenth of 13 children born to his parents Josef Weil (1823–1887) and Fanny geb. Gods. The family owned a cattle shop in Steinsfurt. After attending secondary school in Sinsheim, he completed an apprenticeship with the grain wholesaler Isidor Weismann in Mannheim , the then center of the European grain trade. He quickly advanced to the position of authorized signatory and was also active abroad on Weismann's behalf, including in Switzerland, the Balkans and Antwerp.

His older brothers Leopold and Gustav had long since emigrated to the USA when Hermann followed them in 1898 with the other brothers Samuel and Ferdinand. The three brothers soon turned to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires . Hermann Weil continued to work there for Isidor Weismann and in 1895 founded a branch for him in Buenos Aires. In 1896 he married Rosa Weismann, a daughter of his boss. Two children came from this marriage: Felix José Weil (1898–1975) and Anita Alicia (1901–1951).

With the brothers Samuel and Ferdinand, he founded their own grain wholesale company Weil Hermanos & Cia in Argentina in 1898 , of which he was the majority owner. The company expanded rapidly on the Argentinian grain market, which was just developing, and it made use of the contacts to Mannheim, one of the then global grain trading centers. In 1900 the company had 3,000 employees in branches in all places important for the grain trade. The company also had branches in all major European trading centers. Up to 60 ships sailed on all seas under their own flag.

In 1907 Weil returned to Germany for health reasons. Together with his brother Ferdinand and his wife, he settled in Frankfurt am Main , while brother Samuel continued to run the business in Argentina. Weil had a magnificent villa built at Zeppelinallee 77 and managed the company in Rotterdam and its European branches from here. His wife Rosa died of cancer on April 16, 1912.

He withdrew more and more from business and devoted himself more to political events. During the First World War in 1915 he made his villa available as a military hospital and acted as an advisor to the German economy. He even became a reporter for Wilhelm II and discussed the consequences of a U-boat blockade in England. However, Weil's notions of the success of such a blockade did not hold up against reality. Because he also considered the Falkland Islands to be part of Argentina in his political arguments , part of his property in England was confiscated after the war.

After the First World War he devoted himself to rebuilding his businesses and expanded them to include real estate businesses and the meat trade. In Argentina in particular, Weil was still extremely successful in business even after the First World War. Since he was also an Argentine citizen, his property, which had been confiscated in England, had to be released.

Weil was concerned about the political developments in Germany and clearly expressed his disgust at the burgeoning anti-Semitism and the murders of Rathenau and Erzberger in a letter to the mayor of Frankfurt in February 1923. At the same time, he saw that the German people were "oppressed, driven out and robbed like the Jews" and increased the financial contributions he had made for humanitarian tasks in previous years. In total, he donated around 120 million marks to various social institutions, such as war cripple welfare, institutions for the blind, orphanages and others. For years he supported the Frankfurt University and founded the social science institute for social research , which initially functioned under the name Hermann Weil Foundation . His son Felix Weil was also involved there. The University of Frankfurt awarded Hermann Weil an honorary doctorate .

Weil always maintained relationships with his parents and relatives. Whenever he could, he came to his parents' house in Steinsfurt, where his brother Adolf lived. As early as 1900 in Argentina, he had made agreements with his brothers Ferdinand and Samuel about the care of relatives in Germany. For his mother he set up the Josef Weil Widow Fund, which served to support poor residents in Steinsfurt. Jenny Weil, his brother Adolf's wife, continued this fund after her mother's death in 1914. During the First World War, the fund benefited in particular from warrior women and widows. In 1923/24 he founded a cooking school in his native Steinsfurt. He was last in Steinsfurt a month before his death.

He wanted to be buried at the traditional burial site of the Steinsfurt Jews, the Jewish cemetery in Waibstadt , which is east of the city on the Mühlberg. However, since the Jewish rite forbids the burial of urns in cemeteries, in 1924 he had the Weil mausoleum built right next to the Jewish cemetery for his urn, that of his wife and that of his nurse Steffi Krauth. The mausoleum is an octagonal domed building with a marble floor and a mosaic ceiling, with access via a staircase in front and a courtyard.

On November 10, 1938, the mausoleum was desecrated and badly damaged in the so-called November pogroms. The three urns have been lost to this day. The mausoleum fell into disrepair for years until it was renovated from 1980 to 1983 by the City of Waibstadt, the Sinsheim Forestry Office and the supporting association of the Neckartal-Odenwald Nature Park . Since 2006, pupils from the Waibstadter Realschule and the Neckarbischofsheimer Gymnasium have been commemorating the destruction of the monument and commemorating the persecution of Jews in Germany on the grounds of the mausoleum at Mühlberg. In 2011/2012 the mausoleum was again extensively renovated and restored.

Weil's villa in Frankfurt am Main was converted into its headquarters by the German Football Association , and an advertising agency later moved there.

Honors

In Waibstadt a street is named after Hermann Weil, in Steinsfurt there are memorial plaques on his parents' house and at the cooking school .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermann Weil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Municipal information board at the Weil mausoleum in Waibstadt
  2. Appenzeller 1989, p. 110.
  3. Appenzeller 1989, pp. 110/111.
  4. Appenzeller 1989, p. 111.
  5. Appenzeller 1989, p. 111.
  6. Appenzeller 1989, p. 111.
  7. Weil's letter to the Mayor in Frankfurt from June 1923, quoted in Appenzeller 1989, p. 112.
  8. Appenzeller 1989, p. 112.
  9. Appenzeller 1989, p. 113.