Max Cassirer

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Duck fountain in front of the Renaissance theater

Max Cassirer (born October 18, 1857 in Schwientochlowitz , Upper Silesia , † January 15, 1943 in Llanelltyd , Wales ) was a German entrepreneur and local politician .

Life

Max Cassirer came from the German-Jewish entrepreneurial family Cassirer , his parents were the businessman Marcus Cassirer (1809–1879) and his wife Jeannette Cassirer nee Steinitz (1813–1889). He was born in Schwientochlowitz in 1857 and married Hedwig nee Freund (1862–1928), a sister of Natalie Freund, who later became the wife of his brother Salo Cassirer . He had three children with her: Kurt Hans (1883–1975; art dealer and art historian), Edith Johanna (1885–1982; reform pedagogue; married to Paul Geheeb ) and Franz Otto (1886–1912; businessman).

After graduating from high school in Katowice , he studied medicine in Breslau and Berlin . In 1881 he founded his first company in Gdansk , a timber export business. In 1887 he moved to the then still independent city of Charlottenburg near Berlin. Together with his brothers Julius , Louis and Isidor he founded the company Cassirer & Co. , and in 1899 they founded the Włocławeker sulphite cellulose factory J. & M. Cassirer as a pulp mill in Włocławek , which he ran. After the First World War he took over the management of Tillgner & Co. Zellstoffwerke KG , which was located in Berlin and in the Silesian Ziegenhals ( Głuchołazy ).

From 1893 he was a non-party member of the city ​​council and from 1909 city council in Charlottenburg. When Charlottenburg became an administrative district of Greater Berlin in 1920, he resigned as a city councilor on February 18, 1920. On the same day, the city of Charlottenburg awarded him honorary citizenship for his services . From June 1920 he was a member of the newly founded district council of the Charlottenburg district .

He supported various artistic activities. For example, he donated the duck fountain that today stands in front of the Berlin Renaissance Theater . With its creator, the sculptor August Gaul , he was closely connected for many years. Gaul was allegedly also the author of the design of the family villa built in 1895. Cassirer was socially committed in many areas. He supported the family foundation for the poor and the Odenwald School , which his daughter Edith and her husband Paul Geheeb established. In the Ecole d'Humanité , the Max Cassirer House has been commemorating his commitment since 1970 . In 1928 Max Cassirer became an honorary senator at the Technical University of Berlin .

In the same year he suffered a severe personal blow with the death of his wife Hedwig. Like their son Franz, she died after an appendix operation . The widower acquired the right to use a hereditary burial for sixty years at the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend , where he too wanted to be buried. The 1,912 dead son Franz was Cassirer here umbetten . An imposing tomb with an animal relief based on drawings by August Gaul was created based on designs by Ernst Lessing .

Memorial plaque for the Cassirers at the family's former hereditary funeral at the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend

After 1933 Max Cassirer lost a large part of his fortune. His share capital went to the Siemens subsidiary Elektro-Licht- und Kraftanlagen AG Berlin . In 1938 his remaining assets were "Aryanized" and he was forced to sell the villa. In December 1938 he managed to emigrate . First he fled to his daughter in Switzerland ; she had emigrated there with her husband and some of their students in 1934. In 1939 he traveled to Great Britain , where he lived until the end of his life.

In 1941 he was expatriated and the rest of his property confiscated. He lost several hundred thousand Reichsmarks in bank balances , and his art collection was auctioned or confiscated. Max Cassirer died two years later in exile in Welsh. His final resting place is not known.

The family, who had a memorial inscription for him on the grave monument of his wife Hedwig after the Second World War, gave up the hereditary burial in 1980. Since 1984 the grave with the preserved monument by Ernst Lessing has served as the final resting place of the art historian Hans Maria Wingler . His widow had a small terracotta panel erected there, reminding of Max, Hedwig and Franz Cassirer.

supporting documents

  1. ^ Sigrid Bauschinger: The Cassirers. Entrepreneurs, art dealers, philosophers. CH Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-67714-4 , pp. 445-447.
  2. Max Cassirer. Entrepreneurs, local politicians . Short biography and description of the grave monument at http://www.berlin.friedparks.de . Accessed November 8, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Max Cassirer  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files