Max Emden

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Max James Emden, ca.1928

Max James Emden (born October 28, 1874 in Hamburg , † June 26, 1940 in Muralto , Canton Ticino , Switzerland ) was a German chemist, wholesale merchant, art collector and, since 1927, owner of the Isole di Brissago in Lake Maggiore .

Life

Villa Emden, Brissago Islands, Switzerland

Max Emden was the offspring of a long-established Jewish merchant family from Hamburg, the son of Jakob Emden and his wife Mathilde, born Kann. The Emden family has been known to have been resident in Hamburg since the 18th century, although the Emdens originally came from Frankfurt am Main . After his conversion, Max Emden remained a Protestant denomination throughout his life.

In Hamburg he attended "the Wilhelm Gymnasium , where he passed the Matura examination on September 7, 1893". “Emden studied chemistry and mineralogy in Heidelberg, Geneva, Zurich and Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in 1898. phil. " PhD . He married Concordia Gertrud Helene geb. Sternberg. He fulfilled his military duty with the 1st Leib-Hussar Regiment No. 1 in Danzig.

Max Emden had been a partner since 1904 and later sole owner of the textile trading company M. J. Emden Söhne, which was founded in Hamburg in 1823 , and which he expanded into an internationally active trading company and department store group within a few years. To this end, Emden acquired land in the centers of major German and foreign cities, including Berlin, Potsdam, Chemnitz, Plauen, Stockholm, Munich and Budapest. The company was involved or operated well-known department stores such as the " KaDeWe " in Berlin together with the main shareholder Adolf Jandorf , the Corvin department store in Budapest, the Allas department store in Stockholm, the Oberpollinger department store in Munich, the Poetsch department store in Hamburg and the Petersen department store in Wandsbek.

In 1906 Max Emden had the Hamburg architect Wilhelm Fränkel build a country house in Klein Flottbek for 200,000 marks. Today the Jenisch- Gymnasium private school is located on the 26,000 m² property .

The internationally successful entrepreneur and doctor of philosophy with merchandise sold at the age of almost 50 years the majority of his company properties to the department store group Karstadt (and others) and then withdrew more and more from his commercial activities. From then on, the Hamburg-based company continued to manage the property, which was still extensive, and Emden also kept the foreign department stores in its possession.

He was in Ascona as a guest of Eduard von der Heydt on Monte Verità . In 1927 he acquired the Isole di Brissago in Lake Maggiore from the heavily indebted island owner Antoinette de Saint Léger , initially together with the cellist Bronisław Huberman , who soon withdrew . He had the gardens renewed, the existing buildings largely removed and a palace-like villa built in the classicist style by the Berlin architect Alfred Breslauer . The 33 meter long Roman bath was provided by Emden with the statue The Bathers by the sculptor Georg Wrba . The present botanical garden there is essentially his work. The female nude by the sculptor Werner Müller comes from the time of Emden . The Javanese by sculptor Remo Rossi joined in 1950.

Max Emden study, Villa Emden, Brissago Islands, Switzerland

In 1931 there was a major auction from the “Dr. Max Emden “: paintings by German and French masters of the 19th century, furniture, carpets, bronzes, German silver, faience. The auction was on Tuesday, June 9th, 1931 (Catalog No. 13) - Berlin, 1931. The proceeds from this auction were published in Weltkunst in the same year .

Persecuted in Germany because of his Jewish origins, from 1933 the millionaire lived mainly on his property in the canton of Ticino and surrounded himself with women and parts of his art collection saved from Germany. As for Emden's understanding of art, he was of the opinion that “life as such” was “an art”. In 1930 the Russian painter Baroness Marianne von Werefkin , who was living in Ascona at the time, refused to sell him a picture through his middleman despite her poverty, to show that “there are still artists who respect their own work, but not every bite like hungry dogs jump after, (...) Emden thinks that you can buy anything, he despises people and artists because they camp around him like hungry dogs. (...) better, I beg of poor fellows like me. "

Emden was a passionate golf and polo player . Ascona “owes the creation of its beautiful golf course” to his and von der Heydts' help. In 1928 in Hamburg-Rissen he financed the club house of the Falkenstein Golf Club "with a generous donation" . Emden was the owner of the Hamburg Polo Club in Klein Flottbek until the 1930s , which he had to sell to the city of Altona in 1935 for a low price .

In 1934 he acquired citizenship of the municipality of Ronco, which is adjacent to the Brissago Islands . He received visits from numerous celebrities, such as the Aga Khan , the King of Siam and Erich Maria Remarque . Due to economic hardship, triggered by the measures directed against his assets in Germany, forced sales and "Aryanization" of properties and parts of the business, Emden began selling his works of art that had been brought to Switzerland in 1938, including several paintings by the Venetian Bernardo Bellotto that were in the Adolf Hitler's collection and two paintings of which were in the possession of the Federal Republic of Germany for a long time and were not restituted to the descendants of Emden until 2019. This includes the picture Der Zwingergraben in Dresden .

Honor

On July 18, 2014, a path along the botanical garden in Hamburg-Klein Flottbek was named after Max Emden. The hiking trail runs between Hemmingstedter Weg and Hesten, between the botanical garden and the polo pitch. The application for naming the path contained the reason: "The path leads right through the middle of Max Emden's former property, which he 'voluntarily' sold to the city of Hamburg in 1935." The main committee of the Altona district assembly gave the application, pointing out that Max Emden "Had to sell his property to the city of Altona for a low price in 1935" instead.

Max Emden's legacy

After Max Emden's sudden death in June 1940, his only son, Hans Erich Emden, became the sole heir to his father's property. The Isole di Brissago archipelago in Lake Maggiore belonged to the legacy, which was orphaned and overgrown from 1941 when Emden's son, who had previously been expatriated from Germany as a Jew, finally managed to emigrate to Chile. In this context, Hans Erich Emden apparently had several famous paintings, including a. the flower garden in Arles by Van Gogh , as well as by Renoir, Monet and others in the care of Swiss art dealers, who sold the works of art under unexplained circumstances to various collectors, including the German-Swiss arms manufacturer Emil Georg Bührle . Hans Erich Emden had to give up the islands after the war and sold them in 1949 for around 600,000 francs to the canton of Ticino and the surrounding communities. The canton made the islands publicly accessible in 1950. The German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was on the islands in the 1950s and found the view of Ascona “one of the most beautiful in Europe”.

Publications

  • About the reduction products of phenylglyoxyldicarboxylic acid. Inaugural dissertation of the High Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig to obtain the doctorate. Printed by Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig 1898 (not included in the catalog of the German National Library).
  • Hamburg architecture. Hamburg, November 1909 (not included in the catalog of the German National Library). ( Digitized version of the Hamburg University Library )
  • The natural working day: a math problem . ( Digitized version of the Hamburg University Library )

Movie

On April 10, 2019, the documentary film Life is an Art - The Max Emden Case was premiered in Hamburg . The film works on the story of Max Emden and depicts the heirs' lavish struggle for restitution and justice against the authorities and private art collectors. Numerous experts comment on the subject of looted art and the works of art that were in the possession of Max Emden.

literature

  • Ulrich Brömmling: Max Emden. Hamburg merchant, department store inventor, esthete and patron. (Series: Patrons for Science, New Series; Vol. 1). Wallstein, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8353-3751-0 .
  • Ulrike Knöfel: Too sophisticated for a sacrifice. In: Der Spiegel 38, 2017; online under the title Das Schicksal des Kaufhauskönigs Emden (not yet linkable).
  • Robert Landmann : Ascona - Monte Verità. In search of paradise. Schultz, Berlin 1930; Huber, Frauenfeld 2000, ISBN 3-7193-1219-4 .
  • Ulrich Luckhardt, Uwe M. Schneede : Private treasures. About collecting art in Hamburg until 1933. Exhibition catalog. Hamburg 2001.
  • Giuseppe Mondada: The Brissago Islands past and present. Dadò, Brissago 1975.
  • Eberhard Mros: The Brissago Islands and their surroundings in the capricious game of times. E. Mros, Ascona 2011, ISBN 978-3-9523402-1-9 .
  • Curt Riess : Ascona. History of the strangest village in the world. Europa Verlag, Zurich 1964.
  • Birgit Schwarz: Hitler's Museum. Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77054-4 .
  • Michael Sontheimer, Andreas Wassermann: Morals and Millions . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 2006 ( online - via the Emden Art Collection).
  • Carlo Speziali: 1885 - 1950 - 1985. Le isole di Brissago. Brissago 1985, especially p. 48 ff.
  • Francesco Welti: The department store king and the beauty in Ticino. Max Emden and the Brissago Islands. Huber, Frauenfeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-7193-1551-1 .
  • Ursula von Wiese : Phoenix bird. Stations of my life. Klio, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-906635-02-3 . (Autobiography).
  • The Dr. Max Emden . Auction at Ball-Graupe, Berlin, June 9, 1931 (auction catalog); Heidelberg University ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Max Emden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Curriculum vitae of the author in: About the reduction products of phenylglyoxyldicarboxylic acid. (Inaugural dissertation of the High Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, presented by Max Emden, Hamburg). Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig 1898.
  2. ↑ a b Der Heimatbote , 63rd year, 2014, No. 11 (November 2014), Soeth-Verlag, Glinde. ( Online )
  3. ^ Architects and Engineers Association of Hamburg (ed.): Hamburg and its buildings, taking into account the neighboring cities of Altona and Wandsbek. Hamburg 1914, volume 1, p. 540.
  4. ^ Die Kunstwelt, German magazine for the visual arts , 2nd year 1912/1913, issue 8, page 509 ff. ( Digitized version )
  5. ^ Schools Chronicle
  6. ↑ Hermann Ball, Paul Graupe (ed.): The Dr. Max Emden. Berlin 1931.
  7. ↑ Price list in world art . 5.1931, No. 24, p. 8.
  8. ^ Curt Riess : Ascona. History of the strangest village in the world. Zurich 1964, p. 97.
  9. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin. Munich 2001, p. 234 f. ("Now we have a ' bear exhibition ' and a picture of me is a huge scandal because my pictures have to be bought with love and respect, but not just because you have money. Emden, the island king, heard that it was pecuniary for me It would go very badly, which is also true and he, who has never tried to look after the Ascona artists, has never visited a 'bear exhibition', has never been to me, commissioned his court jester, as he calls him - to buy one of my paintings I was so angry, so outraged - it was before the 'Verbano' and the afternoon was full - that I gave a speech and said I wanted to show that there were still artists who respect their own work, but not how hungry dogs jump after every bite, no matter from which hand it is, and whether a kick is part of it or not (...) Emden thinks that you can buy anything, he despises people and artists because they camp around him like hungry dogs I can't do that with my art - better he, a thousand times better, I beg from poor fellows like me. ")
  10. ^ Robert Landmann: Ascona, Monte Verità. In search of paradise. Zurich / Cologne 1973, p. 221.
  11. ↑ 100 Years of the Hamburg Golf Club: A Brief Biography. Hamburger Golf Club e. V., accessed February 2, 2017.
  12. ↑ Der SPIEGEL , No. 31, July 25, 2020: Schicksalsbilder , p. 108
  13. ↑ input
  14. ↑ a b Annex to the entry of Dr. Winkelmann to the main committee of the Altona district assembly on August 9, 2012 ( online )
  15. ↑ Printed matter. Retrieved September 20, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Emden, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emden, Max James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German wholesale merchant and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1940
Place of death Muralto , Canton Ticino