Max Kade
Max Kade (born October 13, 1882 in Steinbach , † July 15, 1967 in Davos ) was a German-American pharmaceutical entrepreneur, art collector and patron .
Life
Max Kade was born on October 13, 1882 in Steinbach near Schwäbisch Hall. His father was a partner in a machine factory and iron foundry. After attending school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in his father's company, later lived in Völklingen and Antwerp and emigrated to North America in 1904 . There he first lived in Montreal (Canada) and moved to New York in 1907 . Here he founded the drug company Seeck & Kade Inc. with a partner, which was under his sole management from 1911 and had great success with the cough syrup “Pertussin”.
On January 26, 1908, Max Kade married Annette Marie Baudais. The marriage remained childless. From the 1920s, the Kade couple began to use their wealth philanthropically for those in need and for social institutions. Large donations went to B. to his place of birth or the city of Schwäbisch Hall, into which Steinbach was incorporated in 1930. Max Kade was also an art collector and patron and made donations to several German museums.
In addition to the honorary citizenship of Steinbach (1929) and Schwäbisch Hall (1935), Max Kade received numerous honors from the universities he sponsored. He died on July 15, 1967 at the age of 85 during a spa stay in Davos and was buried in Steinbach.
The Max Kade collection, which is managed by the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT , is in the graphic collection of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen .
Max Kade Foundation
Together with his wife Annette, he founded the Max Kade Foundation New York in 1944 . After the end of the Second World War, the foundation initially concentrated on emergency aid for war victims and on the reconstruction of destroyed cultural monuments. Later, the focus shifted to the university sector, in particular to promoting scientific and cultural exchange between Germans and Americans. The Max Kade Foundation has funded or fully financed research institutions, student residences, canteens and libraries and supports the study of the German language as well as German and German-American history.
The foundation supports research libraries and centers for German studies at several universities in the USA as well as the “Max Kade Houses” in German university towns, which are intended to promote encounters between German and US students. There are Max Kade houses or study centers at 30 locations in the USA and 25 locations in Germany and Austria. The foundation also finances scholarships , professorships and exchange programs and supports research projects.
The foundation supports the German Historical Institute in Washington with the publication of German History in Documents and Images (DGDB), a collection of online sources on the history of Germany from 1500.
literature
- Katharina Karwat: The American Dream. Two success managers: Max Kade and Orville Redenbacher , Lighthouse Unlimited, 21. Trier 2003, ISBN 3-88476-619-8 (CD-ROM)
- Herta Beutter (Ed.): Masterpieces from the Max Kade Collection. Volume 2: Max Kade (1882–1967) - industrialist, collector, patron , catalogs of the Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum Schwäbisch Hall, volume 7.2, Sigmaringen 1993, ISBN 3-7995-3309-5 .
- Anette Michels (Ed.): Masterpieces from the Max Kade Collection. Volume 1: The art of narration in graphics , catalogs from the Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum Schwäbisch Hall, Volume 7.1, Sigmaringen 1993, ISBN 3-7995-3309-5 .
- Heinrich Geissler : Masterpieces of old prints from the State Gallery in Stuttgart. For the 100th birthday of the founder Max Kade . Exhibition of the graphic collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, December 9, 1982 - February 13, 1983 at the Stuttgarter Galerieverein eV, Stuttgart: Stuttgarter Galerieverein 1982
- Gunther Thiem: Kade, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 719 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Twenty Years of Max Kade Foundation , New York 1965.
Web links
- Literature by and about Max Kade in the catalog of the German National Library
- Max Kade Houses in Germany and Austria
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kade, Max |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American pharmaceutical entrepreneur, art collector and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Steinbach, Schwäbisch Hall |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 15, 1967 |
| Place of death | Davos , Switzerland |