Hermann Wronker
Hermann Wronker (born August 5, 1867 in Wartheland , † 1942 in Auschwitz concentration camp together with his wife Ida (born April 6, 1871)) was a German- Jewish department store entrepreneur and founder of the Wronker department store chain .
Life
After his first entrepreneurial activities together with his brother Simon Wronker in Mannheim, Hermann Wronker came to Frankfurt am Main in 1891. The company later owned department stores in Frankfurt am Main (at Zeil 101-105 and in the Bockenheim district , Leipziger Strasse 47-51 / Kurfürstenstrasse 2-4) as well as in Mannheim , Hanau , Nuremberg , Pforzheim , Darmstadt , Hanover and Worms .
In 1906, Hermann Wronker and several business partners founded the cinema company Projektions-Aktiengesellschaft "Union" (PAGU) in Mannheim, which is considered to be the origin of the later Union-Filmtheater AG and thus also the UFA . He was involved in the Association of German Department Stores and was also active in the social field. In 1911 he was a member of the board of directors of the International Aviation Exhibition . In his private life he campaigned for the beautification of Frankfurt's old town and donated a lottery for the renovation of the Eiserner Steg, completed in 1912 .
1927–1938, the Wronker family lived in a summer villa built in 1899 for Kommerzienrat Heinrich Karl Ferdinand Gottlob Flinsch (1839–1921) on Rombergweg in Königstein im Taunus .
After the pogrom night of November 1938, Hermann Wronker and his wife Ida managed to emigrate headlong to France, but the planned onward journey to the USA failed. After the French defeat, both were deported to the Gurs and Drancy internment camps and to Auschwitz on September 23, 1942. They were murdered there in autumn 1942.
Her son Max Wronker and his wife Irma Wronker geb. Lichter, together with their children Erich and Gerda, signed up for Paris on September 15, 1933. Max Wronker and his family first fled to Egypt and on to the USA, thus escaping the Holocaust . After the Second World War, Max Wronker and his sister Alice tried in vain to obtain a refund for the company or financial compensation for the company's value. However, plots that had been withdrawn had to be returned to them or, in comparison, something had to be reimbursed for their value. In a large number of other proceedings before the reparations chambers, they also received material compensation.
literature
- Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Jews in Königstein. 2nd Edition. Königstein im Taunus 1998, ISBN 3-9800793-0-9 .
- Dieter Mönch Forgotten Names Destroyed Lives The history of the Jewish Wronker family from Frankfurt and their large department store on the Zeil, Frankfurt am Main, February 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-060336-5
- Thomas Maier: In the footsteps of the department store king. In: Wiesbadener Kurier (Rhein-Main). May 6, 2019
Web links
- Stefan Appelius : Lili Wronker and the department store kings. In: Spiegel online. October 25, 2007.
- Hans Riebsamen: Lili Wronker harbors neither hatred nor resentment. on: faz.net
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Hermann Wronker in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Georg Wenzel: German business leader . Life courses of German business personalities. A reference book on 13,000 business figures of our time. Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg / Berlin / Leipzig 1929, DNB 948663294 , Sp. 2505.
- ↑ http://www.allekinos.com/MANNHEIMUT.htm , accessed on August 1, 2013.
- ↑ Files of the Königstein City Archives
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wronker, Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German retail entrepreneur, founder of the department store chain Wronker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 5, 1867 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wartheland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1942 |
| Place of death | Auschwitz concentration camp |