James von Bleichröder

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James von Bleichröder in his Berlin apartment with the famous singing teacher Mathilde de Castrone-Marchesi (center) and his wife, 1908. Photo by R. Siegert.

James von Bleichröder (born October 14, 1859 in Berlin ; † 1937 ) was a German banker of Jewish origin.

Life

James von Bleichröder came from the Bleichröder banking family and was one of three sons of Gerson Baron von Bleichröder, who was known as the banker Bismarck and who was raised to the nobility by him in 1872 . Bleichröder had studied law and also received a doctorate in the subject. Together with his brother Georg , he was one of the richest people in Prussia at the beginning of the 20th century. His fortune was estimated at around 20 million marks in the years 1895 and 1908 (corresponds to a current purchasing power of around 180 million euros).

He had three children: Kurt, Edgar and Ellie von Bleichröder. The latter was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 27, 1942 and liberated there at the end of the war.

At the First World War, James participated as a cavalry captain of Bleichröder.

He was an important promoter of German automobile racing; on May 27, 1902, he transferred the Palais Bleichröder at Leipziger Platz 16 to what was then the German Automobile Club (DAC; from 1905 to 1918 Imperial Automobile Club, KAC; today: Automobile Club of Germany , AvD) . He also took part in car races as a driver. Around 1910 he gave the Berlin Zoo a hippopotamus.

Grave of the Bleichröder family in Friedrichsfelde

He was buried in 1937 in the family mausoleum of the Bleichröders at the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery , which was demolished in 1950 at the instigation of Wilhelm Pieck . Today a simple tombstone reminds of the family.

Art collection and restitution

Raising Lazarus from the dead

James von Bleichröder was a collector of antiques and works of art. For example, he owned pictures by Adolph Menzel and Max Liebermann . The collection was auctioned off in 1938 at the Rudolph Lepke auction house. The picture of the Raising of Lazarus came to the art collection of Hermann Göring via the art dealer Böhler in Munich and came in 1961 as a transfer from state property to the Bavarian State Painting Collections . After the heirs to James von Bleichröder, represented by a law firm, demanded restitution , the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen reached an agreement with the heirs in 2017 to purchase the painting.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.oliver-rost.homepage.t-online.de/Reichsten-Preussen.rtf
  2. ^ Werner Eugen Mosse: Jews in Wilhelminian Germany, 1890-1914: an anthology, p. 78.
  3. ↑ http://www.ghetto-theresienstadt.de/pages/b/bleichroedere.htm
  4. ^ Fritz Richard Stern: Gold und Eisen: Bismarck and his banker Bleichröder , 2008, p. 754. ISBN 3406568475
  5. ↑ The King of Leipziger Platz. In: Berliner Morgenpost , November 30, 2011
  6. ↑ Wiesbaden Automobile Club: The years 1904 to 1934 , accessed on August 11, 2020
  7. ↑ Utz Anhalt: Tiere und Menschen als Exoten, 1971, p. 222. ( online , accessed on January 19, 2012).
  8. ↑ http://www.sozialistenfriedhof.de/bleichroeder.html
  9. ↑ Auction catalog
  10. ↑ Inventory no. 13269 = Lost Art ID 391067
  11. ↑ Activity report of the Bavarian Provenance Research Association for the year 2015/2016
  12. ^ Painting From Goering's Collection Is Returned to Banker's Heirs. , New York Times July 21, 2017, accessed July 21, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Bleichröder, James von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 1937