Johannes Hirsch

Johannes Hirsch (born August 13, 1861 in Hamburg-Hamm , † May 4, 1935 in Hamburg ) was a wood turner , chairman of the Hamburg trade association, politician of the Reich Party of German SMEs , later the DVP and Hamburg Senator for Construction.

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  Master turner Johannes Hirsch - Chairman of the Hamburg Trade Association (1908–1928) and Senator in Hamburg (1928–1933)

Life

Johannes Hirsch grew up in Hamburg. He attended the St. Anschar School. From 1875 he did an apprenticeship as a turner in his father's company. From 1879 he went on a three-year journey to southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland and then returned to Hamburg to continue to work in his father's company. His father Heinrich Hirsch (1825–1912) was a staunch Baptist. From 1892 Johannes Hirsch became a partner in his father's business, which he gradually took over and expanded into a modern and versatile turnery in Hamburg's old town (Brandstwiete 42). He was considered to be very eloquent. In 1908 he became the sole owner. His son Henry (* 1899) and later his son-in-law Fritz Knörzer were included in the craft business.

He introduced electrification in the workshop in 1890 and reacted flexibly and creatively to the technical and time-related fluctuations in his craft. One focus was the production of good chess sets in ivory , boxwood , ebony and other materials according to special designs, regardless of the economic situation . a. the “reform chess game” designed by Johannes Biernatzky, which is interesting in terms of craftsmanship. A special feature for Hamburg: At the time, the ships were equipped with chess games for their crews - and after each trip, if something was missing, something was added.

The ivory teat cups for babies were also something special. At the time of the introduction of low-voltage electrical systems, pushbuttons, end buttons and rosettes were manufactured in the Hirsch turnery. Antlers, horns and other hunting trophies were processed for hunters - for the production of chandeliers and cigar tips. After a lot of things could be bought as industrial mass production in the newly created department stores, a change in the turnery was again necessary: ​​for the rapidly growing construction activity, door and window fittings and furniture fittings were offered in particularly good designs and a. made of horn, wood, synthetic horn and synthetic resin.

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  Board for the 25th anniversary of the Museum of Art and Industry

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  Main entrance to the museum

Around 1901 he became a member of the Hamburg trade association . He soon became a board member and from 1908 (until 1928) chairman, succeeding Theodor Menzel (1840-1915).

Even as a journeyman, Hirsch was involved in founding the local health insurance fund as an employee representative. Later he was a representative of the two insurance associations Nova Versicherungsanstalt a. G. and the United Life Insurance Company a. G. for craft, trade and commerce (Vela). From 1914 to 1934 he was its chairman. They are the forerunners of today's Signal Iduna .

Johannes Hirsch was elected to the Hamburg parliament in 1910 . There he joined the faction of the left . In 1919, Hirsch was re-elected for the Reich Party of German Middle Classes , which in Hamburg called itself the Economic Party or Economic Party. From 1921 to 1924, the members of the Economic Party in Hamburg appeared as a separate faction within the DVP. Hirsch switched to DVP in 1924 and was a member of the city council until 1928.

On April 5, 1928, Hirsch was elected to succeed Max Schramm as President of the Building Authority in the Senate , of which he was a member until March 8, 1933.

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, the bronze bust was unveiled in the commercial building on August 15, 1931. It was created by the sculptor Hans Waetcke (1888–1968) and donated by the Hamburg Trade Association, of which Johannes Hirsch was honorary chairman.

During his term of office the construction of, among other things, 20 large schools, the expansion of the Waltershof harbor area, the development of the southern old town, the construction of the land registry hall as an extension of the civil justice building (architect Fritz Schumacher ), the development of Barmbek and the Veddel , the crematorium in Ohlsdorf (Architect Fritz Schumacher)

The Hamburg Chamber of Crafts paid tribute to Johannes Hirsch in their newsletter Nord-Handwerk on the occasion of his 150th birthday on August 13, 2011.

Fonts

• My life. Master turner, Hamburg Senator retired Memories. Hamburg: Lührs, 1933 (115 pages)

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 , p. 969.
• Theodor Menzel - Festschrift at the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Hamburg Trade Association founded by the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades. The Hamburg trade association from its founding to the present (1867–1907). Hamburg, J. Heinrich Lührs book printing.
• Memorandum for the 60th anniversary of the foundation festival of the Hamburg Trade Association of 1867 eV, October 6, 1927, Hamburg, Gebr. Hoesch
• For the 90th birthday of Johannes Hirsch †. Hamburg Trade Association of 1867 eV - Dr. Walther Heyn in Bulletin No. 7 September 1951, pp. 1-4.
• Erich Lüth, Hamburg and his craft 1873–1973, May 1973, Hamburg, Hans Christians Verlag
• SIGNAL-IDUNA– 100 years hand in hand. The history of SIGNAL-IDUNA 1907–2007, p. 14.

Web links

• Hamburg part, page 27

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Hirsch: 100 years of Hamburg turnery. Memorandum to celebrate the turnery by HH Hirsch Schritzmeyer successor. December 2, 1927
2. ↑ http://www.budde-medien.de/material/100-jahre-signal-iduna.pdf (link not available)
3. ↑ Nord-Handwerk ( Memento from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 9.4 MB), No. 7/8, 2011, Hamburg part p. 27