Julius Ariowitsch

Julius (Judel) Ariowitsch (* February 12, 1853 in Selwy , not far from Slonim ; ✡ November 22, 1908 in Leipzig) is the founder of the tobacco company (fur fur wholesale) J. Ariowitsch in Leipzig, founded in 1877 and entered in the commercial register in 1892 , one of the leading companies in the industry at the time. However, the history of the fur trade in the family goes back further and reached its climax later under his son Max Ariowitsch .

Live and act

Julius Ariowitsch was the son of Mordechai Ariowitsch (✡ 1878), a tobacco shop in Slonim, Belarus, after 1904 there was also a branch in Slobodskoi . The father was already a regular visitor to the Leipzig trade fairs to sell raw hides and buy refined hides, he died while visiting the Nizhny Novgorod trade fair. Julius accompanied his father on these trips. After attending school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship. On February 1, 1877, he married Liba (Louise) Hepner, who was three years his junior (born July 12, 1856 in Meseritz ; ✡ July 19, 1939 in Paris), whom he had met during a stay in Leipzig. Louise Hepner was the daughter of the tobacco merchant Mendel Hepner , who had moved from Meseritz in Poland to Leipzig before 1870 . The two moved into a house in Slonim. In the same year the daughter Doba (Toni) was born.

In May 1878 the couple moved to Leipzig and Judel (called Julius) Ariowitsch founded the trading company for bristles and tobacco products with working capital of 20,000 marks. The son Max Markus was born here on September 26, 1880 . In 1899 Julius Ariowitsch rented business and storage rooms at Brühl 71, the company's address until the end of the National Socialist era. The family also lived in rented apartments privately.

Julius Ariowitsch was still a Russian citizen. In order to obtain naturalization in the Kingdom of Saxony as a prerequisite for obtaining citizenship of the city of Leipzig, he applied for naturalization in the early 1880s. The decision for this was made by the Leipzig District Headquarters as the Saxon state middle authority. The Leipzig city council decided on granting citizenship. A majority of the city council rejected the admission of the “Jew” - thus the Ariowitsch family - on the basis of which the district administration rejected the request for naturalization. Without any special legal regulation, Eastern European immigrants, especially Jewish ones, were usually granted Saxon citizenship in Saxony only in exceptional cases during the German Empire. Julius Ariowitsch submitted another application for naturalization in 1883. Again, a majority of Leipzig city councilors rejected the request on the grounds that “the applicant's business does not provide the necessary guarantees” for an adequate livelihood. With the support of the mayor of Butschatsch in Galicia, Julius Ariowitsch received Austrian citizenship ten years later for himself and his family.

Max Ariowitsch, the only son, began a commercial training in his father's company after finishing school. Two months before his 21st birthday, he received power of attorney. In December 1903 the company was converted into a general partnership; whereby Julius Ariowitsch remained personally liable partner. In 1904, his son-in-law Hermann Halberstam (* 1864 in Brody (Ukraine) ; † 1941) also joined the company as a partner. Halberstam, who has a doctorate in law, lived as court and court lawyer in Vienna. In November 1900 he married Toni Ariowitsch, who was twelve years his junior . Relatives of his lived in Leipzig, including the family of the tobacco merchant Albert Halberstam. After their marriage, Halberstam gave up his job and moved to Leipzig to work in his father-in-law's company. In 1905, Ariowitsch & Jacob Fur Co. , Limited was founded in London . The international business was taken over by Max Ariowitsch. Before the First World War, a company branch was set up in New York. Max Ariowitsch also married. His wife was an Austrian Jew; like Hermann Halberstam, she had lived in Vienna. The couple Max and Marie Ariowitsch had three children, the oldest son was given the first name Julius, the given name of his grandfather.

At the Felllager: Far left Max Ariowitsch, far right Herbert Halberstam

Julius Ariowitsch died on November 22, 1908, he was buried in the old Israeli cemetery. Due to the political situation, the Leipzig families Ariowitsch and Halberstam changed citizenship again after the Second World War, in order not to become stateless, and they opted for Polish citizenship.

In order to keep the memory of her husband alive, Louise Ariowitsch had the Beth Jehuda Synagogue built in Leipzig in 1922 (destroyed on November 9/10, 1938), also known colloquially as the “Ariowitsch Synagogue”. In 1930, together with her son Max, she founded the Julius Ariowitsch Foundation , which was approved in her name and which financed the construction of a Jewish old people's home in the following year, which was further expanded in later years. All inmates received free accommodation and service, penniless also free food and pocket money. For many Leipzig Jews, the house was the last refuge after 1938. On September 19, 1942, however, the 350 residents were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and the property was confiscated by the Gestapo.

The Jewish company in Leipzig, once one of the most powerful and wealthy on the Brühl, was forcibly liquidated during the Nazi era.

Associated foreign companies were, in London Ariowitsch & Jacob Fur Co. Ltd. , founded in 1905; in New York J. Ariowitsch & Company , 1910-1914; J. Ariowitsch Corporation , 1914-1919 and the Anglo-American Fur Merchants Corporation , 1932.

• Memorial plaque on the Leipziger Brühl
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  "For centuries the Brühl was the center of the international tobacco trade, also shaped by Jewish traders."

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  Co-sponsor of the grandchildren Julius Ariowitsch, Paris

See also

• Max Ariowitsch

Web links

Commons : Ariowitsch, fur trader  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d} Wilhelm Harmelin: Jews in the Leipziger Rauchwarenwirtschaft . In: Tradition - magazine for company history and entrepreneur biography, issue 6, December 1999, p. 274.
2. ^ Robrecht Declercq: World Market Transformation - Inside the German Fur Capital Leipzig 1870-1939. Chapter: Eastern Promises: Transnational Entrepreneurship and Mobility , New York 2017 (English). ISBN 978-1-138-66725-9 .
3. ↑ www.waldstrassenviertel.de: Personalities in the Waldstraßenviertel - Louise Ariowitsch . Last accessed on July 28, 2019
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} JJIS Journal Jews in Saxony . German-Russian Center Saxony V. (Hrgr.), August / September 2009. ISSN 1866-5853. Last accessed July 24, 2019.
5. ↑ JJIS - Journal Jews in Saxony . Primary source: Leipzig City Archives, recording files / citizen files No. 37533, o. Bl.
6. ^ Walter Fellmann: Max Ariowitsch (1880-1969) . In: Ephraim Carlebach Foundation (ed.): Judaica Lipsiensia. Edition Leipzig 1994, pp. 268-269. ISBN 3-361-00423-3 .
7. ↑ Max Ariowitsch at judeninsachsen.de