Lothar Frank (banker)

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Lothar Frank (born January 15, 1900 in Stuttgart , † January 22, 1985 in Hollywood ) was a German-American economist, banker and entrepreneur. From 1925 to 1936 he worked for the Reich Statistical Office , the Stuttgart banking house Gebr. Rosenfeld and the Berlin Petschek group. In 1936 he emigrated to the USA, where he worked in Hollywood as a securities broker and investment advisor, including for the German community in exile. His son Anthony M. Frank became president of a large savings and loan company and American postmaster general .

origin

Lothar (Günther) Frank, Americanized Lothar G. Frank, was born on January 15, 1900 as the fourth child of Sigismund Frank (1848–1930) and Lina Frank, b. Rothschild (1865–1960) born in Stuttgart. The family lived at Johannesstrasse 26 since 1895 and in their own house at Forststrasse 68 from 1902.

As assimilated Jews, Lothar Frank's parents had integrated themselves into bourgeois Stuttgart society. His father Sigismund Frank was a partner in the Stuttgart banking house Gebr. Rosenfeld. The family belonged to the so-called upper bourgeoisie due to their prosperity and their social position. The Stuttgart historian Maria Zelzer counts the Franks among the "newly emerging rich of the Stuttgart Jewish community": in 1914, when there were 250 millionaires in Stuttgart, 33 were Jews, and Frank's father had a fortune of two million marks (this corresponds to almost 10 million euros).

Education

Lothar Frank attended the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart and passed the Abitur in 1919. Until 1924 he studied law, political science and sociology in Tübingen , Innsbruck, Berlin, Freiburg im Breisgau and then again in Tübingen. His teachers in Tübingen were Herbert von Beckerath (political science), Ludwig von Köhler (public law and social sciences), Curt Eisfeld (business administration, banking and savings banks) and Robert Wilbrandt (economics and finance). On May 24, 1924, he was the first graduate in Germany to take the diploma examination for economics and was awarded a doctorate. rer. pole. at Curt Eisfeld with the dissertation "The Württemberg savings banks and the devaluation". The topic of his doctoral thesis was highly topical in the period of inflation after the First World War, and Lothar Frank was well acquainted with the topic through his father's work in a bank. The course should provide him with a good foundation for his later career as a banker.

During his studies in Berlin in 1921 or in Tübingen from 1921 to 1924, Lothar Frank met his future wife, Elisabeth Roth, who was born on December 22, 1900. Her father Albrecht Roth was a judge and director of the penal institution in her place of birth Delmenhorst , later in Vechta . Her mother was Minna Roth geb. Koch, one of three children of the Bremerhaven school principal Anton Koch and his Jewish wife Minna Koch born. Lion's Arch. One of her mother's brothers, Erich Koch , was a member of the left-wing liberal party DDP ( German Democratic Party ) in the Weimar Republic and at times was Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice. Because of his publicly expressed opposition and because of his mother's “half-Jewish” origins, Koch had to expect reprisals from the Nazis. He then emigrated to Brazil with his family in 1933. Elisabeth Roth studied law and economics in Marburg, Berlin and Tübingen from 1920 to 1924, where she received her doctorate in 1924 from the tax lawyer and financial scientist Theodor von Pistorius with the dissertation “State and Tax in German Financial Theory”. rer. pole. PhD.

Life and work

Germany

From 1924 to 1925 Lothar Frank completed an apprenticeship in a bank, while his future wife Elisabeth Roth worked as a civil servant at the A. Spiegelberg bank in Hanover. From 1925 to 1927 Lothar Frank and Elisabeth Roth lived in Berlin. She held a position as an adult education center lecturer, he was a research assistant at the Reich Statistical Office . During this time he published a series of articles in the journal “ Die Arbeit. Journal for trade union politics and economics ”, the theoretical organ of the General German Trade Union Confederation , for which his former teacher, the cooperative socialist Robert Wilbrandt, also contributed. Lothar Frank published his essays under the series title "Weltwirtschaftliche Overview" and dealt with the current state of the world economy.

It is not known when Lothar Frank and Elisabeth Roth married, probably in 1927 at the latest when they moved to Stuttgart. Elisabeth Roth worked again as a lecturer at the adult education center, Lothar Frank joined the Rosenfeld Brothers Bank as a partner in place of his brother Helmuth Frank (Helmuth Frank left the bank in 1924 and moved to Genoa). The other partners were his father and Abraham and Edgar Einstein.

After the death of his father in 1930, Lothar Frank ended his active participation in the bank and took the position of assistant director at the parent company of the Julius Petschek Group in Berlin . During the Nazi era, the headquarters of the company of Jewish origin was relocated to London. Nothing is known about Lothar Frank's faring during this time, except that in 1933 he was taken into custody for five months due to his partnership in the Rosenfeld family. Elisabeth Frank worked as a lecturer at the Social Women's School in Berlin. On May 21, 1931, she gave birth to the couple's first and only child, their son Anton (Melchior) Frank, who later called himself Anthony M. Frank . He became president of the sixth largest savings and loan company in the United States and served as the postmaster general of the United States from 1988 to 1992.

United States

In 1936, Lothar and Elisabeth Frank decided to emigrate to the USA because of the threat posed by the Nazi regime , and in November they emigrated to New York with their five-year-old son Anton. In a letter to the journalist Rudolf Kommer , who lives in the USA , Lothar's brother, the writer Bruno Frank , wrote in December 1936: “He had a very good post as director of the Petschek coal company in Berlin, nobody did anything to him; but he could no longer stand Germany and left. ... He has to live for two years and, since he has knowledge of both business and banking, he will get on with it. ... By the way, he's lovely, clever, open-minded and full of humor. "

After arriving in New York, Lothar Frank stayed in town and worked as a messenger on Wall Street for $ 12 a week. Elisabeth Frank settled in Philadelphia with her son Anthony . After her studies at Bryn Mawr College , a private college for women, she was appointed director of "college" and acquired there in 1938 the degree of Magister (MA) and the Graduate Certificate in Community Organization.

By 1939 at the latest, the family had been reunited and from then on lived in Hollywood . Lothar Frank worked as a broker and investment advisor for Merrill Lynch until his retirement in 1965 . After the war he was also deputy chairman of Valentin-Mehler AG in Fulda and member of the supervisory board of various companies. In addition to his professional activity, he was also active in the Jewish community of his new home (see # Jewish community ). Elisabeth Frank held the position of advisor and later head of the scientific department of the Los Angeles County's private welfare agency from 1939 to 1965 .

Retirement

Elisabeth Frank died in Hollywood on March 25, 1969 at the age of 68. The last publicly known sign of life from Lothar Frank is a letter he wrote to the Thomas Mann biographer Peter de Mendelssohn in 1981 . He outlived his wife by 16 years and died a week after his 85th birthday on January 22, 1985 in Hollywood.

Jewish community

Lothar Frank campaigned actively for the concerns of Jewish emigrants in California. According to the immigrant almanac of the German exile magazine “ Aufbau ”, he was available in the magazine's Hollywood office as a consultant for the processing of banking transactions via foreign and immigrant accounts. As a financial advisor, he also advised prominent emigrants, including Thomas Mann and the conductor and composer Bruno Walter , both of whom were also friends of his brother Bruno Frank.

The Jewish Club of 1933 was originally founded as a material aid organization that soon developed into a general interest group for Jewish emigrants. In the spring of 1942, Lothar's brother Bruno Frank and Thomas Mann had been made honorary members of the club after they had advocated a more generous treatment of so-called hostile foreigners in a hearing before a congressional committee (Tolan Committee).

On August 2, 1942, Lothar Frank was elected to the Board of Directors of the Jewish Club of 1933 for two years. After his term in office he was not re-elected in the next election on July 24, 1944.

Publications

  • The Württemberg savings banks and currency devaluation. Tübingen: Dissertation, 1924.
  • World economic overview. World trade before and after the war. In: Work: Journal of union politics and economics , 2nd year, 1925, issue 11, pages 712-716, online: .
  • World economic overview. The shift in European heavy industry. In: Work: Journal of union politics and economics , 3rd year, 1926, Issue 1, pages 63-65, online: .
  • World economic overview. The state of the global economy in 1925. In: Work: Journal of union politics and economics , 3rd year, 1926, No. 4, page 269-274, online: .
  • World economic overview. Shifts in the production of important raw materials compared to the pre-war period. In: Work: Journal of union politics and economics , 3rd year, 1926, No. 7, pages 466 to 470, online: .
  • World economic overview. The individual continents in raw material production before and after the war. In: Work: Journal of union politics and economics , 3rd year, 1926, No. 8, page 530-534, online: .

literature

Life

  • Lothar Frank. In: Immo Eberl; Helmut Marcon: 150 years of doctorate at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tübingen: biographies of doctors, honorary doctors and post-doctorates 1830-1980 (1984). Stuttgart 1984, number 951.
  • Elisabeth Roth. In: Immo Eberl; Helmut Marcon: 150 years of doctorate at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tübingen: biographies of doctors, honorary doctors and post-doctorates 1830-1980 (1984). Stuttgart 1984, number 957 (Elisabeth Roth).
  • Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work. Düsseldorf 2009, pages 17-18, 138, 209, 227-228, 278.
  • Frank, Anthony M. In: Charles Moritz (Editor): Current Biography Yearbook 1991 , Volume 52. New York 1991, pages 226-229.
  • Johanna W. Roden: In memoriam Lothar Frank. In: Ernst Loewy et al.: Newsletter [of the Society for Exile Research] / Newsletter: 1984 to 1993 with complete register. Berlin 1995, number 4, December 1985, page 30, online .
  • Maria Zelzer : Path and Fate of the Stuttgart Jews. A memorial book. Stuttgart 1964, pages 34, 63, 74, 465 (Sigismund Frank, Lothar Frank, Bankhaus Gebr. Rosenfeld).

swell

  • Structure , Volume 8, Number 48, August 7, 1942, page 16.
  • Structure , Volume 10, Number 29, August 8, 1944, page 16.
  • Wolf M. Citron (Editor): Structure of the Almanac: The Immigrant's Handbook. New York: German-Jewish Club, 1941.
  • Hans Kafka : “Alien Problem” evening in the “Jewish Club of 1933”. Appointment of Bruno Frank and Thomas Mann as honorary members. In: Aufbau , Volume 8, Number 14, April 3, 1942, page 19.
  • Bernd Möbs: On the way to Stuttgart's poets. New literary walks. Tübingen 2012, page 23.
  • Elisabeth Roth: State and Tax in German Finance Theory. Tübingen: Dissertation, 1924.

Archives

  • State Archives Ludwigsburg :
    • F 303 II Bü 35, commercial register files Bankhaus Gebr. Rosenfeld.
    • EL 350 I Bü 1033, 31777, compensation matters Lina Frank, Bankhaus Gebr. Rosenfeld.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 .
  2. ↑ # Address books .
  3. ↑ #Kirchner 2009 , pages 17-18, #Zelzer 1964 , pages 63, 74, 465.
  4. ↑ #Zelzer 1964 , pp. 72–74, comparisons of purchasing power of historical amounts of money .
  5. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 .
  6. ↑ #Frank, Lothar 1924 , VI.
  7. ↑ In 1923, based on the suggestions of his teacher Robert Wilbrandt, a sample examination regulation for economic study regulations was introduced at all German universities.
  8. ↑ #Frank, Lothar 1924 , #Eberl 1984.1 .
  9. ↑ #Moritz 1991 , page 227th
  10. ↑ # Roth 1924 , # Eberl 1984.2 .
  11. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 .
  12. ↑ #Frank, Lothar 1925 etc.
  13. ↑ # Rosenfeld Commercial Register .
  14. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 .
  15. ↑ # Compensation matters .
  16. ↑ #Eberl 1984.2 . - In #Eberl 1984.2 the name of the politician and women's rights activist Marie Elisabeth Lüders is mentioned in this context , without any indication of the relationship between Elisabeth Frank and her.
  17. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 , #Eberl 1984.2 .
  18. ↑ #Kirchner 2009 , page 259.
  19. ↑ According to 1940 census: Councilmanic District 2, Los Angeles Township, see [1] .
  20. ↑ #Eberl 1984.1 , #Eberl 1984.2 .
  21. ^ Letter from Lothar Frank to Peter de Mendelssohn dated June 30, 1981 from Los Angeles, Monacensia, Munich.
  22. ↑ #Citron 1941 , page 40.
  23. ↑ #Moritz 1991 , page 227th
  24. ↑ #Kafka 1942 .
  25. ↑ # Construction 1942 .
  26. ↑ # Construction 1944 .
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American economist, banker and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1985
Place of death Hollywood