Hugo Zwillenberg

Hugo Zwillenberg (born May 26, 1885 in Lyck , East Prussia ; † October 31, 1966 in Bern ; full name: Hermann Hugo Zwillenberg ) was a German-Jewish lawyer , entrepreneur and diplomat .

Life

education

Zwillenberg spent the first years of his life in his hometown Lyck, where he first attended the community school and then the Royal High School Lyck . After his parents moved to Rastenburg , he attended the Herzog-Albrechts-Gymnasium there , where he passed his Abitur at Easter 1904 . Zwillenberg then studied law and political science , first at the Albertus University in Königsberg , then at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and finally at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1908 he passed the first state examination in law , then began his practical training as a trainee lawyer . From October 1, 1908 to September 30, 1909, he did his military service as a one-year volunteer , first until March 31 with the Royal Bavarian 8th Field Artillery Regiment “Prince Heinrich of Prussia” in Nuremberg and then with the Royal Bavarian 10. Field artillery regiment in Erlangen. He then continued his practical training in Bartenstein , Berlin and Königsberg and passed the second state examination in spring 1914 . In the meantime, he was awarded his doctoral thesis in 1912: To what extent is a debt redeemed through the surrender and acceptance of banknotes, Reich cash bills, interest coupons (coupons) and postage stamps? at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen for Doctor iuris utriusque doctorate .

First World War

After completing his studies, Zwillenberg was accepted into the civil service as a court assessor , but shortly afterwards when the First World War broke out on August 1, 1914, he had to enlist as a non-commissioned officer in the 8th Field Artillery Regiment and served throughout the war until he ended on December 18 1918 was released from army service. During his service, he received three military awards:

• on April 9, 1916 the Iron Cross 2nd class,
• on January 8, 1917 the Bavarian Military Merit Cross with Crown and Swords,
• on August 22, 1918 the service award 3rd class.

Weimar Republic

After his discharge from army service, he worked as a judge in Berlin for a short time , then switched to the private sector. In view of his marriage to the daughter of the department store entrepreneur Oscar Tietz , he joined the company Hermann Tietz & Co. as a trainee , and his future father-in-law personally took care of his training as a department store specialist. In fact, he began as a company lawyer , shortly thereafter became an authorized signatory and in 1919 a partner . On November 18, 1919, he married Elise Regina Tietz in Berlin (born April 11, 1896 in Munich). The couple had two children, Lutz Oscar Tietz (born December 9, 1925 in Berlin-Charlottenburg; † December 25, 2011 in Bern) and Helga Henriette Linde (born February 25, 1930 in Berlin; † January 16, 2013 in Bern). Together with him, his younger brother-in-law Martin Tietz became a partner, the older brother-in-law Georg had already become one in 1917. Zwillenberg later became an honorary committee member in the Association of German Department Stores and honorary financial judge ; In 1929 he joined the Berlin Society of Friends .

In addition to his professional activity, Zwillenberg was also culturally involved. In the field of art, this is particularly reflected in his private collection of sculptures by the animal sculptor August Gaul . In Berlin's musical life, he worked as a sponsor in the context of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde zu Berlin, which made him an honorary member for his important services to the club on the occasion of its 25th anniversary in January 1933.

Third Reich

During the time of National Socialism , the Hermann Tietz company was "Aryanized" in 1933/1934 . Zwillenberg resigned in July 1933 from the management and the end of 1934 entirely from the company. In the following years he controlled various manufacturing companies in which he was significantly involved; However, his main focus was on the management of his estate, the Dominium Linde with 1500 hectares in the Westhavelland district . He had already been a farmer on this in his spare time. His two brothers-in-law, Georg and Martin Tietz, who had also left the company, had accepted citizenship of the Principality of Liechtenstein and subsequently ended up in the USA via Cuba . During the "Reichskristallnacht" on November 9, 1938, Zwillenberg was arrested by the Gestapo in his Berlin office and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp the next day , from which he was released on November 26. On March 9, 1939 , he and his family emigrated to the Netherlands .

On January 10, 1939, he was appointed Honorary Consul of the Republic of Nicaragua in Rotterdam . There he soon acquired a majority stake in NV Eerste Nederlandsche Snaren - en Catgutfabriek and took over management of the company. After the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, the Zwillenberg family were arrested in Amsterdam on October 25, 1943 and taken to the Westerbork transit camp , where they were interned from November 4, 1943 to March 15, 1944 . From March to May 1944 the family stayed in the French internment camp Vittel and, after an exchange of prisoners with the Allies, from June 1944 until the end of the war in North African internment camps of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration . The family returned to the Netherlands on August 26, 1945.

post war period

Unlike the Tietz brothers, Zwillenberg did not return there after Germany's surrender , but stayed with his family in the Netherlands. From 1945 to 1958 he was Consul General of the Republic of Nicaragua there, as well as Consul General of the Republic of San Marino . In addition to his diplomatic activities, he expanded the surgical instruments company he had acquired before the war. In 1964 he moved to Bern with his wife to live with the two children who lived there. Hugo Zwillenberg died there on October 31, 1966, his wife Elise on August 14, 1986.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless other sources are given, the information comes from the unpublished memoirs of his son:
   Lutz O. Zwillenberg: It needed seven miracles. A life story. Bern 2012. (187 pages, written for family use only)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} curriculum vitae of Zwillenberg, typescript 1938.
3. ^ ^{A b c} German department store group (department stores Hermann Tietz). Reprint from: Deutsches Wirtschafts-Archiv , Berlin undated (around 1928).
4. ^ Georg Tietz: Oscar Tietz. Becoming, creating and living. Berlin undated (around 1925), p. 53.
5. ↑ KunstEINSICHTBern , No. 5, p. 21.
6. ^ Letter of January 16, 1933.
7. ^ Nils Busch-Petersen : Berlin's merchants are partly to blame for the pogrom night of 1938. In: Der Tagesspiegel of November 9, 2008.
8. ^ Hermann Aurich: Märkische country seats of the Berlin bourgeoisie , lexicon , last accessed on October 31, 2017
9. ^ Certificate of discharge from the camp commandant of the Sachsenhausen state concentration camp from November 26, 1938.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Monika Gibas (Ed.): "Aryanization" in Leipzig. Leipzig 2007. ( limited preview on Google Books )
11. ↑ ^{a b} Curriculum vitae von Zwillenberg, typescript after 1945.
12. ↑ Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life. Berlin 1980, p. 852.

literature

• 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 , column 2541 f.
• 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. 2103 (with portrait photo).
• Max Osborn (Red.): The department store of the west. Berlin 1932, p. 13. (portrait photo of Zwillenberg)