Levi Cohn

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Levi Otto , also Lewin Cohn (born April 11, 1836 - August 21, 1915 in Berlin ), was a German entrepreneur. In 1868 he founded the glove industry in Johanngeorgenstadt , which achieved international renown and came to a standstill after the fall of the Wall and peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1989.

Life

Levi Cohn settled down as an entrepreneur in the Saxon mountain and exile town of Johanngeorgenstadt in the Ore Mountains after the city fire of 1867, which destroyed almost the entire city center and most of the existing craft and industrial businesses . Here he founded the ice cream glove industry in 1868 and gave many of the then homeless residents of Johanngeorgenstadt wages and bread. More than 900 employees worked in his factory, which was newly built in 1871. In 1885, Cohn acquired the American M. Wertheimer as a partner in his glove factory. In 1898 at the latest, however, he left the company and founded his own competing company in Johanngeorgenstadt. In 1909, however, bankruptcy proceedings had to be opened via the traditional L. Cohn glove factory. It became the property of Steinberger & Kalisher in Berlin , New York and San Francisco , the world's largest glove company at the time. Levi Cohn then retired and moved to Berlin. His son Hans C. Otto took over the glove factory Pincus & Otto in 1913 and worked as managing director of the company La Tosca, Handschuhfabrik GmbH Johanngeorgenstadt , whose headquarters were in London and which in addition to the factories in Johanngeorgenstadt (Glacé leather dyeing works in Schallergasse, glove makers Georgistraße and office at Bahnhofstraße / corner of Markt ) also had a factory in Worcester . In 1913 his company supplied the goatskin bridal gloves to the imperial daughter Viktoria Luise von Prussia .

Levi Cohn was married to Anna geb. Otto (1854-1924). Because of his Jewish origins, he applied to change his family name. For his son Hans, he managed to get his mother's maiden name in 1879.

Honors

  • Knight of the Order of Albrecht, 1st class
  • In 1919 the Johanngeorgenstadt City Council decided to build a memorial for Levi Cohn and his family in the cemetery on Hospitalstrasse. Two years later the solemn inauguration of the grave took place on the wall of the cemetery facing Friedhofsgasse. In this grave three grave tablets commemorate Levi Cohn, his wife Anna, nee Otto, and their son Hans C. Otto . From 1933 onwards, tomb care was neglected. The honor grave has been preserved to this day in a damaged and overgrown condition. In particular, the plaque donated by the city of Johanngeorgenstadt to the founder of the glove industry has broken.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The story of the Lewinsohn family, 2015 (PDF, accessed October 19, 2018)
  2. ↑ http://www.johanngeorgenstadt.de/index.php?id=joh_chr_2010
personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Levi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Lewin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German glove manufacturer
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1836
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1915
Place of death Berlin