Johann Jacob Paul Wirtz

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Johann Jacob Paul Wirtz (born June 26, 1881 in Hamburg ; † December 28, 1946 there ) was a Hamburg overseas merchant , banker and president of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce .

Johann Jacob Paul Wirtz

Life

origin

Paul Wirtz was born on June 26, 1881 as the son of the Hamburg overseas merchant Hugo Hubertus Wirtz and his wife Maria Wirtz, b. Terfloth was born in Hamburg. His father came from a family based in the Rhineland . He worked in England for a long time and took on British citizenship . In 1877 he settled in Hamburg, where he founded a trading company for Chile - saltpeter , resin and turpentine oil - under the name Hugo Wirtz .

Merchant

Wirtz attended the Johanneum School of Scholars in Hamburg . After extensive commercial training in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main , London and New York City , he joined his father's trading business as a partner in 1907. The years of the First World War led to financial losses for the previously flourishing company due to the confiscation of the assets invested mainly in London and the impossibility of overseas trade with Chile . After a temporary position as head of the Reichsmark billing office in Hamburg, Paul Wirtz was able to take advantage of the recovering trade with Chile and to continuously expand the company into the leading saltpeter house in Hamburg in the following years. In 1925 he became a member of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce . In 1929 he followed the call to general director of the Nitrate Corporation of Chile Ltd. in London and moved his residence there. His stay lasted until 1935. He then worked in Chile before returning to Hamburg in 1936.

banker

At the suggestion of bankers and good business friend Max Warburg , who in 1938 because of the Nazi - terror was forced to emigrate to New York City, the faithful entered a Catholic and opponent of the Nazi regime in the spring of that year in the big German bank M.M.Warburg & CO A . He became personally liable partner of the private bank alongside his previous general representative Rudolf Brinckmann . In 1941 it was renamed Brinckmann, Wirtz & CO . The two shareholders succeeded in steering the bank through the war years.

President of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

In 1945 Paul Wirtz became a member of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce again. On November 17, 1945, Mayor Rudolf Petersen appointed him their President with the approval of the British military government . For health reasons, he asked for his release from office on November 26, 1946.

Private

Paul Wirtz was the second oldest of seven siblings. His older sister Martha was the wife of Wilhelm Cuno . His brother Max was with Anita Wirtz, geb. Hudtwalcker married and emigrated to Chile, where he lived as an overseas merchant and haciendero. On September 24, 1907, Paul Wirtz married Johanna Russell, the daughter of the ducal Arenberg court chamber president, in Recklinghausen . They had a daughter and three sons. Paul Wirtz died shortly after his resignation as President of the Chamber of Commerce on December 28, 1946 in Hamburg.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Ingo Köhler: The "Aryanization" of the private banks in the Third Reich, 2nd edition, CH Beck: Munich 2008 (2005), ISBN 978-3406532009 , pp. 333f.
  2. ↑ a b A royal merchant . In: Die Zeit , January 9, 1947.
  3. ^ Matthias Wegner: Hanseatic League. Of proud citizens and beautiful legends . Pantheon Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3570550717 , p. 421.
  4. ↑ Hendrik Ankenbrand: Finanzdynastien (9): Warburg: A very German story. In: faz.net. August 11, 2008, accessed June 5, 2011 (German).
  5. ^ Eduard Rosenbaum / AJ Sherman: The banking house MMWarburg & CO. 1798-1938 . 2nd edition, Verlag Hans Christians, Hamburg 1978 (1976), ISBN 978-3767204201 , p. 213.
personal data
SURNAME Wirtz, Johann Jacob Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wirtz, Johann Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German overseas merchant and banker
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1946
Place of death Hamburg