Otto Beit

Sir Otto John Beit in his study in Belgrave Square, painted by William Orpen (1913)

Sir Otto John Beit, 1st Baronet KCMG , FRS (* December 7, 1865 in Hamburg ; † December 7, 1930 ) was a British financier, philanthropist and art collector of German origin.

biography

Professional background

Otto Beit was born in Hamburg to a wealthy Jewish family; an older brother was Alfred Beit . In 1888 he went to England and joined the trading house Wernher, Beit & Co. , in which his brother Alfred was a co-owner. In 1896 he acquired British citizenship. In 1890 he traveled to South Africa to gain experience in the diamond industry. He stayed there for six years and was involved in the development of the Rand Gold Mines . He worked for the company of the magnate Hermann Eckstein . Like his brother, Beit was a friend of Cecil Rhodes and supporter of his imperialist ideas; during the Jameson Raid he stayed in Rhodes' guest house.

Although Beit held a prominent position in the Witwatersrand gold industry , he returned to London because he wanted to devote himself more to his scientific and cultural interests. He continued to do business until his brother Alfred died in 1906 and he inherited his great fortune; then he retired into private life and became involved as a philanthropist.

Offices and honors

Sir Otto John Beit, 1st Baronet

Otto Beit administered the Rhodes Foundation as well as the Beit Trust , whereby he was involved in settlement plans in southern Africa; he was also director of the British South Africa Company . In 1920 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for supporting the South African troops and hospitals in England. In 1924 he was raised to the Baronet , of Tewin Waters in the Parish of Tewin in the County of Hertford , because of his numerous donations to children's sanatoriums, libraries and a homeopathic research institute . The territorial dedication of the title refers to the family estate. He was a so-called fringe lord . He donated the construction of the Beit Quad , a building for the student union at Imperial College London . A plaque at the entrance to the building, designed by Omar Ramsden , reminds of this today . He was a generous supporter of the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the University of Cape Town , for which he broke ground in 1920. In 1928, the King Edward's Hospital Fund received £ 50,000 from Beit to buy radium after it was recognized that it was useful in fighting cancer. He generously supported the Victoria and Albert Museum in acquiring new works of art and gave his name to an award from the Royal Society of British Sculptors , the Otto Beit Medal .

Otto Beit also remained connected to his hometown: In Hamburg, after Alfred's death, funds from the family were used to build the Alfred and Otto Beit monastery on the grounds of the Father City Foundation with 34 apartments, which were intended for people who “serve in the household Stands "belonged to or had belonged to. At the end of the 1920s the number of apartments was increased to 46 with money from Otto Beit. His widow transferred monthly donations to the monastery until the Nazi era. In 1926/1927 Otto Beit donated three properties to the University of Hamburg . After the First World War , however, he only donated to charitable purposes in Hamburg.

Beit held many offices. Among other things, he was director of Rhodesia Railways Ltd , from 1912 to 1930 a member and board member of Imperial College and founder of the Beit Memorial Trust for Medical Research . He initiated the Beit Fellowship at Imperial College in 1913 in memory of his brother Alfred and founded the Beit Fellowships for Scientific Research at Imperial College . He was a member and co-founder of the Royal Institute of International Affairs . He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town and since 1924 Fellow of the Royal Society.

A bridge over the Zambezi between Zambia and Zimbabwe was named after Otto Beit , which was commissioned by the Beit Trust and inaugurated in 1939 by his widow Lillian.

Private

Otto Beit died on his 65th birthday after a long illness. He was married to Lilian Carter, an American from New Orleans . The couple had two sons and two daughters.

The older son Theodore died in 1917 as a soldier in an English barracks. He committed suicide because he was harassed by his comrades in the traditional 1st The King's Dragoon Guards , probably because of his German-Jewish origins. He held the rank of Second Lieutenant ( lieutenant ). In his suicide note he wrote: I suppose I have to go through hell another night. I think the best thing is for me to end my life. It is nobody's fault except that other fellows of my own age do not seem like me. ( German "I guess I'll have to go through hell one more night. I think it's best if I end my life. It's nobody's fault, except that there are some guys my age who obviously see me." can't stand. ”) After an investigation, his fellow regiments were acquitted of complicity in his death. The younger son, Alfred Lane Beit , became a well-known British politician.

literature

• Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa Vol.2. Nasou, Cape Town 1970, ISBN 0-625-00320-9 .

Web links

• Sir Otto John Beit, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com
• Newspaper article about Otto Beit in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fellows of the Royal Society. Sir John Otto Beit 1865–1930 (PDF)
2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 31712, HMSO, London, December 30, 1919, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed October 18, 2013, English).
3. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 32929, HMSO, London, April 22, 1924, p. 3295 ( PDF , accessed July 11, 2018, English).
4. ^ Henning Albrecht: Albert Beit. Hamburger and diamond king. Published by the Hamburg Scientific Foundation. Hamburg 2011, pp. 131–132 (PDF, 4.5 MB)
5. ^ Henning Albrecht: Albert Beit. Hamburger and diamond king . Published by the Hamburg Scientific Foundation, founded in 1907. Hamburg 2011. P. 129 (PDF, 4.5 MB)
6. ↑ ^{a b} Beit’s Suicide due to Game . The New York Times . January 30, 1917

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baronet, of Tewin Water 1924-1930	Alfred Beit