Hugo Simon (banker)

Hugo Simon (born September 1, 1880 in Usch , Posen Province , † July 1, 1950 in São Paulo , Brazil ) was a German banker and politician. After the November Revolution of 1918, he was briefly Minister of Finance in the Prussian Council of People's Representatives as a member of the USPD . Alfred Döblin dealt with this short time as a politician in his novel November 1918 .

Life

Hugo Simon came from a Jewish family. His father was the teacher Victor Simon, his mother was Sophie Simon geb. Jablonski. He grew up on his father's farm in Kahlstädt in the Kolmar district (Posen province). After attending grammar school, he completed an agricultural training course and a bank apprenticeship in Marburg. After his father's death and the sale of the property, Simon lived in Berlin-Zehlendorf with his wife Gertrud and their daughters Anette and Ursula . In 1911 he founded the private bank Carsch Simon & Co. together with Otto Carsch . In 1922, the partners separated and Simon founded the successor company Bett Simon & Co. together with Kasimir Bett and Kurt Gutmacher .

Hugo Simon was chairman of the supervisory board of Allgemeine Häuserbau-AG from 1872 - Adolf Sommerfeld (Berlin), deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Cröllwitzer Actien-Papierfabrik (Halle ad Saale), member of the supervisory board of G. Feibisch AG (Berlin), steam brickworks Bergenhorst AG (Berlin), the Deutsche Grundkreditbank AG (Gotha-Berlin), R. Frister AG ( Berlin-Oberschöneweide ), Multiplex-Gasfernünder GmbH (Berlin), Terrain-AG Botanischer Garten - Zehlendorf West (Berlin), Thüringische Landeshypothekenbank AG (Weimar) and the Wurzen art mills and biscuit factories vorm. F. Krietsch ( Wurzen ) (all as of 1931).

Hugo Simon was a well-known art lover and collector. He was considered a committed art patron and, as a member of the purchasing committee, influenced the acquisition policy of the Nationalgalerie Berlin . He was a member of the supervisory board of S. Fischer Verlag and Ullstein Verlag and banker of the publisher Paul Cassirer . Politicians, artists, scientists and scholars met every week in his house. These included u. a. Bertolt Brecht , Erich Maria Remarque , Alfred Döblin , Arnold Zweig , Heinrich Mann , Stefan Zweig and Carl Zuckmayer , also visual artists such as Max Pechstein , Oskar Kokoschka and George Grosz , as well as the actress Tilla Durieux , the publishers Samuel Fischer , Ernst Rowohlt and the Ullstein brothers and politicians like the Prussian Prime Minister Otto Braun . In addition, Hugo Simon was friends a. a. with Albert Einstein , Karl Kautsky and Thomas Mann ; the poet Else Lasker-Schüler dedicated her poem Gott hör ... to “Hugo Simon dem Boas” in 1920 .

In 1921 Hugo Simon bought the former “Schweizerhaus” restaurant in Seelow ( Mark Brandenburg ) and built a model farm here with cattle, poultry, fruit and vegetable cultivation. In 1923/24 he had a replica of Goethe's garden house built in Weimar on the site . The builder was the architect Ernst Rossius-Rhyn . There was also a small park with aviaries for various species of parakeets and pheasants and a bird fountain designed by the ceramicist Emil Pottner . He was a member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and worked a. a. together with Erwin Baur , director at the Institute for Breeding Research in Müncheberg run by the Kaiser Wilhelm Society .

Immediately after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Hugo Simon and his wife fled to Paris via Switzerland . Here he again founded a bank, supported refugee aid and got involved in politics and the like. a. as a founding member of the pacifist organization Bund Neues Vaterland . In 1937 Hugo Simon was expatriated. Shortly before the Wehrmacht occupied Paris, he and his wife managed to escape to Marseille in June 1940. Finally, in February 1941, both of them were able to travel to Brazil via Spain and Portugal with Czech passports under the code names "Hubert Studenic" and "Garina Studenic" .

The couple initially lived in Rio de Janeiro , then moved to Barbacena , where Hugo Simon devoted himself to raising silkworms. He died in São Paulo in 1950 .

Art collection

Simon's extensive art collection was scattered through emigration , expropriation and distress sales. The existing structure can no longer be reconstructed in detail today. In 1933 he was able to carry out several works of art, including in particular works of German Expressionism and works from the 19th century. He offered several works for sale in Switzerland and France to individual art dealers and museums such as the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Kunstmuseum Basel . A number of works of art remained in Germany and were confiscated by the National Socialists on October 9, 1933, together with Simon's other property.

Swiss house

The Schweizerhaus was withdrawn on October 5, 1933 by an order of the district president in Frankfurt ad Oder (rapporteur: Government Councilor Möbius). The reason for the confiscation was that Simon was finance minister of the “Marxist Prussian government” and a member of the USPD for a while “and because even after his resignation until shortly before January 30, 1933, he maintained relationships with high-ranking Marxist personalities ... The guests were the former ministers Braun, Severing and Greszinsky, as well as the Marxist leaders Bernhard, Weiß and Dr. Breitscheid ". - The Schweizerhaus was taken over in 1936 by the state experimental institute in Landsberg / Warte and continued as the “Staatliches Versuchsgut Oderbruch”. After the Second World War, the estate was initially occupied by the Red Army and served to supply them. In 1950 the estate was taken over by the Association of Nationally Owned Enterprises and henceforth operated as VEB Gartenbau. During this time, the Schweizerhaus housed the administration and served as a home for apprentices. After 1990 a community of heirs submitted an application for restitution.

Autobiography

• Hugo Simon: silkworms. (unpublished).

literature

• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 , p. 1787.
• Doc. 118. The district president in Frankfurt (Oder) justifies the confiscation of Hugo Simon's property to the Prussian finance minister on May 26, 1934. In: The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 1: 1933-1937. Oldenbourg-Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, pp. 339–341 (reading sample, books.google.de ) - on the expropriation of the Schweizerhaus.
• Marlen Eckl: "Paradise is lost everywhere". The image of Brazil by refugees from National Socialism. Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-86527-579-0 .
• Felix Escher:  Simon, Hugo. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 435 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Izabela Maria Furtado Kestler : The exile literature and the exile of the German-speaking writers and publicists in Brazil. Frankfurt am Main 1992.
• Edita Koch: Hugo Simon / Hubert Studenic. In: exile. [Frankfurt, M.], Volume 3, 1983, 1, p. 50 f. ISSN  0721-6742 .
• Frithjof Trapp: The autobiography of the banker and politician Hugo Simon: political reflection in the medium of German realism. In: exile. [Frankfurt am Main], Vol. 6 (1986), 2, pp. 30-38, ISSN  0721-6742 .
• Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (Ed.): Fluchtgut - Raubgut. The transfer of cultural goods in and via Switzerland 1933–1945 and the question of restitution. Zurich 2001.
• Anna-Dorothea Ludewig, Rafael Cardoso (ed.): Hugo Simon in Berlin. Places of action and thinking spaces. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin / Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-274-6 .

Movie

• Private film for Hugo Simon (1924), direction and production: Gertrud David .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hugo Simon in the catalog of the German National Library
• Part of Hugo Simon's estate in the German Exile Archive of the German National Library