Leo goose
Leo Gans (born August 4, 1843 in Frankfurt am Main ; † September 14, 1935 there ; full name: Leo Ludwig Gans-Landau ) was a German chemist and entrepreneur . For his services as a patron and promoter of science and culture, he was made an honorary senator of the University of Frankfurt and in 1928 he was made an honorary citizen of his hometown. In 1933, the 90-year-old goose was forced to resign from all offices and honorary posts because of his Jewish descent.
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Leo Gans came from one of the oldest German Jewish families with a permanent family name, which has been mentioned since 1350. His father Ludwig Aaron Gans , son of Philipp Ahron Gans and Fanny Gans born. Hanau, came from the Jewish family of traders who had lived in Celle for over 150 years, moved to Frankfurt and married Rosette nee. Goldschmidt (1805-1868). Leo was one of six children they shared. His brothers were Adolf Gans and Friedrich Ludwig von Gans , his sisters Henriette Heidelbach, Pauline Weinberg and Marianne Löwengard.
On March 15, 1876 he married Luise geb. Sander (1854–1927), with whom he had three children. Their only daughter Hedwig (1877–1947) married Kartz von Kameke (1877–1942) and first moved to his estate in Pomerania. Their first son Robert was born in 1879 and died in the same year. Her second son Richard (1880–1943) first studied chemistry, but then became a lawyer . There was no entrepreneurial succession in this family branch. Gans always lived in Frankfurt, in the house at Barckhaustraße 14. He had this house built by his nephew, the architect Alfred Löwengard . In 1917 Leo bought the estate with Wallenburg Castle in Miesbach in Bavaria , which is still owned by his descendants today. Leo Gans converted to Protestantism around the turn of the century .
He heard chemistry from Rudolf Christian Boettger , who had been a teacher at the Physikalischer Verein since 1835 , and studied at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic , at the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg , at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and at the University of Marburg . His academic teachers included a. Emil Erlenmeyer , Robert Bunsen and Hermann von Helmholtz .
After a time in Paris , where he met the founder of tar paint chemistry , August Wilhelm von Hofmann , he and August Leonhardt founded a dye laboratory in Frankfurt am Main in 1868. In 1870 he built a new factory for the production of fuchsine and other dyes in Fechenheim , then a small village on the Main between Frankfurt and Hanau . The new company was renamed first as Frankfurt aniline dye factory of Goose and Leonhardt , later as Frankfurt aniline dye factory Goose & Co . From 1879 he built it, later with the support of his nephews Arthur and Carl Weinberg , through intensive research into a leading company for textile dyes. By 1900 the company, renamed Leopold Cassella & Co. in 1894, had become the world's largest manufacturer of synthetic dyes.
In 1904 the Farbwerke Hoechst vorm took part. Master Lucius & Brüning at the Cassella company, which was merged into IG Farbenindustrie AG in 1925 . From 1926 to 1932 Gans was a member of the IG Farben supervisory board .
His successful entrepreneurial activity brought him a considerable fortune, which he used as a patron for numerous scientific and social purposes in his hometown. I.a. Gans was chairman of the Städelschen Museumsverein , the Physikalischer Verein and the Frankfurt Aviation Society , which organized the first Frankfurt International Aviation Exhibition in 1909 . In 1913 the asteroid no. 728 was named Leonisis , after Leo Gans and the Egyptian goddess Isis , the symbol of the physical association.
Two figures by the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier donated by Leo Gans are located in Frankfurt as art in public space . There are the figure The Sower from 1890, which was purchased by the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1906 and has been in Günthersburg Park since 1915 , and The Dock Worker , also from 1890, on the Frankfurt Friedensbrücke .
In 1914 Gans was one of the founders of Frankfurt University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1923 . He held the honorary title of Privy Councilor of Commerce and the academic degree of Dr. phil. His honorary doctorates included Dr. med. hc and Dr. rer. nat. hc In 1928 he was the first native of Frankfurt to become an honorary citizen of the city of Frankfurt am Main . In 1932 he supported the maintenance of the Goethe House with a generous donation to the Free German Hochstift .
He died in Frankfurt on September 14, 1935. His grave is in the main cemetery . A street in Fechenheim was named after him.
literature
- Franz Lerner: Leo Gans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 64 ( digitized version ).
- Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (= publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 .
- Angela von Gans, Monika Groening: The Gans family 1350-1963. Verlag Regionalkultur, Heidelberg, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89735-486-9
- Monika Groening: Leo Gans and Arthur von Weinberg. Patronage and Jewish emancipation (biography series of the Goethe University: Founders, Patrons and Scholars), Societätsverlag Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-942921-86-2 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Goose, Leo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gans-Landau, Leo Ludwig (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German chemist and entrepreneur, honorary citizen of the city of Frankfurt am Main |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Frankfurt am Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1935 |
| Place of death | Frankfurt am Main |