Joseph Jonas

Jonas as Lord Mayor (ca.1904)

Joseph Jonas (born July 16, 1845 in Bingen , † 1921 ) was a German steel manufacturer and Lord Mayor of Sheffield . He was born as the son of Joseph Jonas the Elder († 1875) and Anna Jonas, b. Kappes († 1863) born.

Professional career

After an apprenticeship in a Cologne iron and steel goods store, he worked in a Westphalian steel mill. Only 21 years old, he came to Great Britain in 1867 . After a short stay in London , he took British citizenship in 1876 and moved to Sheffield.

He worked as a sales representative for a few years until he founded a commercial agency in 1870. Jonas started his career from the smallest beginnings with two employees. In 1872 Robert Colver became a partner in the company. The steady upswing of the company soon enabled the merger of Colver Brothers and WT Beesley & Co. with his company. In 1892 his company was converted into a limited liability company with £ 125,000 working capital. When Jonas died in 1921, his company was one of the UK's largest manufacturers of crucible cast steel , high speed steel , files, hammers and other typical Sheffield products.

politics

After 20 years as a successful businessman, Jonas entered Sheffield public life as a politician. In 1904 he became Lord Mayor (Lord Mayor) of Sheffield. Jonas was particularly committed to training the next generation of specialists. In 1910 he became chairman of the Sheffielder Technical School, a later department of the university.

Until the outbreak of the First World War he was one of the most respected citizens and employers. During his tenure he was beaten to Knight Bachelor ("Sir"), but in 1918 this award was stripped from him as a result of a conviction for treason .

Joseph Jonas was close friends with the German arms manufacturer Paul Mauser and his family. Jonas made a major contribution to the fact that Mauser received large delivery orders for rifles from the Turkish army. In addition, Jonas Sheffielder supplied spring steel to large European arms factories.

First World War

His good business connections with the Mauser weapons factory were his undoing when the First World War broke out : in November 1913 he had obtained information about a new Vickers branch in Crayford for Paul von Gontard from the German arms and ammunition factories . In peacetime, such an exchange of business information would have been without consequences, but the British state saw its security at risk. Even if Old Bailey found Jonas guilty of only one minor offense in the judgment, the consequences were drastic: Jonas was stripped of his knighthood one month after the trial. His naturalization certificate was revoked, although the investigative commission set up by the Interior Ministry had spoken out in favor of Jonas.

literature

• Gerald Newton: Sir Joseph Jonas of Bingen. Lord Mayor of Sheffield, University Benefactor, German Spy? Hidden Jew? . In: Richard J. Kavanagh (Ed.): Mutual exchanges. Sheffield Münster colloquium , Vol. 1. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-631-34290-X , pp. 310–329.
• Wolfgang Seel: Mauser rifles under the crescent moon. Turks Mauser . In: Deutsches Waffen-Journal . Volume 17, 1981, No. 6, pp. 796-803, No. 7, pp. 976-981, No. 8, pp. 1160-1164, No. 9, pp. 1264-1269, No. 10, pp 1418-1423, No. 11, pp. 1578-1582, No. 12, pp. 1722-1727, 18 (1982) No. 1, pp. 52-57.
• Wolfgang Seel: Mauser. From an armory to a global company . Stocker-Schmid Publishing House, Dietikon-Zurich 1986.
• Wolfgang Seel: Mauser puzzle. How the Turkish order came about . In: Deutsches Waffen-Journal . Volume 28, 1993, Issue 1, pp. 42-47.
• SO Addy and WT Pike: Sheffield at the Opening of the 20th Century. Contemporary Biographies . Pike, Brighton [1901] (= Pike's New Century Series, Volume 4)
• Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland . Spottiswoode, London 1909.