Leopold Koppel
Leopold Koppel (born October 20, 1854 in Dresden , Kingdom of Saxony , † August 29, 1933 in Berlin ) was an important Jewish entrepreneur and banker . He was one of the most important sponsors of scientific institutions such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science and other institutes in Berlin.
Life
Training and economic advancement
Leopold Koppel came from a simple Jewish family. The father Moritz Koppel lived in Dresden, the mother Marie Kohn came from German Rust in Bohemia. Leopold Ruppel attended grammar school in Dresden and completed a banking apprenticeship. He then went into business for himself with the private bank Koppel & Co. in Dresden.
In 1890 he moved the business to Berlin, where it developed extremely well. A prestigious location was immediately chosen as the place of business: Unter den Linden 52. In 1892, Leopold Koppel and the chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach founded Deutsche Gasglühlicht AG (Degea, also DGA), of which Koppel & Co. were and were the main financiers Chairman of the supervisory board.
In addition, had Leopold Koppel supervisory board positions held in a number of other companies, including in the Hotel-Betriebs-AG , which operated the class Berlin hotels Bristol, Central and Westminster, as well as that of his brother Arthur Koppel conducted (1851-1908) Lokomotiv firm Arthur Koppel AG .
Leopold Koppel developed through his successful economic engagement to one of the richest people in the empire. In 1906 the bank moved to Pariser Platz 6, one of the most prestigious addresses in Berlin. In 1918, the Auer-Gesellschaft (the successor to Deutsche Gasglühlicht-AG ) separated the Osram plants with the production of electric light bulbs.
Social engagement and promotion of science
From 1891 Leopold Koppel belonged to the Jewish Society of Friends , which offered social support.
In 1903, Leopold Koppel proposed to the German Reich to donate 2.1 million marks for the construction of single homes in order to "put an end to the trouble with sleeping places". The Reich should pay an equal amount as a mortgage on favorable terms. The aim of the initiative was to get those affected “to turn away from the party that wrote the overthrow on their flags,” that is, from the Social Democrats. The project failed because of Koppel's condition to “remain absolutely incognito”, which the state did not want.
In 1905, on the occasion of Wilhelm II's silver wedding anniversary, Leopold Koppel founded the Koppel Foundation to promote Germany's intellectual relations with other countries (from 1913 Leopold Koppel Foundation ) with a capital of 1,000,000 M. This foundation subsidized the German medical school in Shanghai, among others and the German university in Tsingtau and, from 1913, the salary for the new member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences Albert Einstein . Even more outstanding was the participation in the establishment of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (KWG) from 1911 and some of its bodies. Leopold Koppel not only supported the KWG as a sustaining member, which was reflected in his election as Senator from 1911 to 1933. He also donated a one-off amount of M 1,000,000 for the establishment of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry and an annual grant for its work amounting to M 35,000 for the establishment of the Kaiser Wilhelm Foundation for Science of Warfare (KWKW) In 1916/17 he made a donation of 2,000,000 marks in the form of war bonds.
Last year of life
_Leopold_Koppel.jpg)
Leopold Koppel came under great pressure right from the start of the Nazi regime in 1933. He had to leave the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society as early as May 1933.
Leopold Koppel died in August 1933 and was buried in the Lichterfelde park cemetery. The burial site was an honorary grave of the city of Berlin from 1964 to 2014 .
The Koppel & Co. banking house he founded disappeared around 1934, either through forced liquidation or " Aryanization ".
Honors
- 1891 Appointment to the Commerce Council
- 1900 Appointment to the secret council of commerce
- Bearer of the Order of Wilhelm , as the second representative of the economic bourgeoisie in Berlin
- 1917 Golden Leibniz Medal
Characterizations
In 1905, the Berlin banker Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy sent a subjective description to the Prussian Ministry of Education in response to an official request: "Koppel is considered to be extremely capable and clever. Business obligations have always been fulfilled promptly, but one advises that larger agreements should be made before a competent lawyer His character is said to have improved as his fortune increased. "
Marriage and offspring
Leopold Koppel was married to Klara Henriette Helene Halberstam († 1900 (?), Buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee ). They had several daughters and a son.
- Elsbeth / Else Klotz (* 1882), emigrated to Switzerland in the 1930s / 1940s, then lived in New York
- Käthchen (Katharina?) Koppel (* 1884)
- Gertrud Klotz (* 1886)
- Albert Leopold Koppel (1889–1965) became a partner in his father's bank, emigrated to Switzerland in the 1930s and 1940s, then to Toronto and finally to New York
Koppel art collection
In his villa at Rauchstrasse 22 in the Tiergartenviertel (bought in 1893), Leopold Koppel had amassed an extensive collection of paintings by Baroque painters such as Rembrandt , Peter Paul Rubens , van Dyck and others. It was put together on the advice of Wilhelm von Bode .
After Leopold Koppel's death in 1933, his son Albert Leopold Koppel took over a large part of the collection. He managed to export many works to New York, where some of them were sold. The daughter Else Klotz and her descendants received some paintings.
Personal estate with photographs
Part of the personal estate, mainly photographs, has been in the archive of the Max Planck Society in Berlin-Dahlem since October 2016 . Until then, no photos of Koppel were known, he was only shown on the caricature "At the Prince of Peace". The documents have been available to users since December 2016.
literature
Biographies
- Hans H. Lembke : Leopold Koppel. Investor and patron of science. Influence and power of a financier in the background (1854–1933). Springer, Berlin 2020 Information
- Dieter Hoffmann , Hermann Simon : Leopold Koppel (1854–1933): banker, philanthropist, patron of science , Berlin: Hentrich and Hentrich, Berlin 2010, series Jewish miniatures Volume 91, ISBN 978-3-941450-15-8 .
- Eike Schierhorn: Leopold Koppel. Who was that? In: Berlin History of Science Colloquia XII, contributions to the history of astronomy and physics. Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Institute for Theory, History and Organization of Science, Colloquia, Issue 61, Berlin 1987, pp. 117–128.
Further literature
- Christof Biggeleben : The "bulwark of the bourgeoisie". The Berlin merchants 1870–1920. (= Series of publications for the journal for corporate history , volume 17.) CH Beck, Munich 2006.
- Christoph Kreutzmüller : How the Kaiser Wilhelm Society deals with money and goods. Real estate transfers and Jewish foundations 1933–1945. (= Results , 27.) Berlin 2005. online (PDF; 567 kB)
- Margit Szöllösi-Janze : Fritz Haber 1868–1934. CH Beck, Munich 1998.
- Günter Wendel : The Kaiser Wilhelm Society 1911–1914. On the anatomy of an imperialist research society. (= Studies on the History of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , Volume 4.) Academy, Berlin (East) 1975.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leopold Koppel
- ↑ Two rare Rubens portraits hit market artsy (10th paragraph)
- ↑ In return, Hermann Göring received some works in return for his collection, for example Saint Agnes by Hans Weiditz (Wydyz)
- ↑ Adoption of photographs from the estate of Leopold Koppel (1854-1933) , October 2016, page at the MPG archive, Berlin, accessed January 2, 2017, the page contains a photo by Koppel
- ↑ Photos and documents from the Leopold Koppel Collection are available for use , December 19, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koppel, Leopold |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jewish entrepreneur, banker and patron of science |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden , Kingdom of Saxony |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 29, 1933 |
| Place of death | Berlin |