Julius Lewin (entrepreneur)

Julius Lewin (born April 22, 1875 in Gollub ( West Prussia province ); died 1950 in New York City ) was a German entrepreneur who built up the Yramos cigarette factory , primarily in Dresden , and was a co-owner until 1938.

Life

In 1890 his father founded his first cigarette and tobacco factory in Gollub, which he entered and which he later took over. After his participation in the First World War , he moved it to Freiberger Strasse in Dresden in 1919. The background was the better economic prospects, but also that it was foreseeable that Gollub would fall to Poland through the provisions of the Versailles Treaty .

Since 1922 Lewin called the Oriental Tobacco and Cigarette Factory “Yramos” Julius Lewin , which had a respectable position with quality and branded cigarettes (around 500 million cigarettes annual production). His son Hermann Lewin became a co-owner. This turned out to be particularly valuable, because he had developed into an excellent tobacco connoisseur and was able to consolidate the company's position primarily through quality cigarettes. In 1932 the company moved to Wilhelm Lande's former cigarette factory at Striesener Laubestrasse 24.

Julius Lewin was involved in the Jewish community in the Orthodox Culture Commission.

Despite the boycott after the National Socialist seizure of power , Hermann and Julius Lewin tried to continue the company, even though it was no longer possible to buy first-class raw tobacco. Nevertheless, he joined the cigarette industry interest group . Despite the unfavorable conditions, a guaranteed market quota (300 million units per year) was initially planned for the company. Between 1936 and 1937, however, sales fell from 88 million to 42 million units. At the end of 1937 he agreed with his son to sell the company, which employed many Jews, after a Gestapo raid.

In March 1938, the Reemtsma group bought the company and the Nazi state confiscated the purchase price. Unlike his son, who emigrated penniless to the USA, he stayed in Dresden.

On April 28, 1942, he and his wife Sarah were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . Sarah did not survive this, Julius Lewin was able to return to Dresden after the end of the war in June 1945. After a short stay, he followed his son to the USA, where he died in New York in 1950.

literature

• Erik Lindner: Jewish entrepreneurs in the Dresden cigarette industry . In: Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Between Integration and Destruction - Jewish Life in Dresden in the 19th and 20th Centuries (= Dresdner Hefte - Contributions to Cultural History. No. 45, 2nd, modified edition, June 2000). Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-910055-34-6 , pp. 53-57

Web links

• Entry on Julius Lewin in the online database of the Saxon Memorials Foundation