Otto Gerstenberg

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Otto Gerstenberg at the age of 75, 1923

Otto Gerstenberg (born September 11, 1848 in Pyritz , † April 24, 1935 in Berlin ) was a German manager in the insurance industry and art collector . Under his leadership, Victoria-Versicherung rose to become the leading German life insurance company . His innovative achievements in the insurance industry include the introduction of life insurance as a national insurance in Germany. Gerstenberg owned one of the most important private art collections at the beginning of the 20th century. Parts of this collection are now looted in Russian museums.

The early years

Little is known about Otto Gerstenberg's parents. His father was a musician or shoemaker and died the same year Otto Gerstenberg was born. It is unclear whether the mother, who was widowed at the age of 21, married again. Otto Gerstenberg attended high school in Pyritz after primary school, which he graduated from high school in 1865. In addition to good grades in Latin, Greek and French, his aptitude for mathematics stood out in particular. Gerstenberg then studied mathematics and philosophy in Berlin.

Victoria in Berlin

Gerstenberg began his professional career in 1873 as an actuary with the Allgemeine Eisenbahn-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft . Just two years later, the company changed its name to Victoria zu Berlin, Allgemeine Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft (now Victoria ), because the business purpose in the previous name of the company's further expansion seemed too narrow. Gerstenberg developed new insurance tariffs and thus contributed to the success of the company. As early as 1888 he was promoted to the directorate of the insurance company and became general director in 1901.

Following Bismarck's social legislation , Gerstenberg further developed private risk prevention for large sections of the population. His innovative achievements in the German insurance industry included the development of "life and accident insurance with premium refund" and the "system of increasing dividends as a special form of profit sharing". The “Lifelong transport accident insurance with one-time premium payment”, which he developed in 1889, also attracted particular attention.

Gerstenberg's most important achievement, however, is the introduction of life insurance as a national insurance in Germany in 1892, whereby he primarily saw the growing number of industrial workers in the economically emerging German Empire as new insurance customers. The aim was to set up life insurance for everyone, regardless of their social or financial situation. Based on the model of the British Prudential Insurance , Gerstenberg introduced the system of weekly insurance premiums analogous to the weekly wages of workers at the time. The collection business required for this was handled by an insurance company's own network of cashiers. These so-called "Victoria messengers" wore uniforms similar to those of the postman and were the only outdoor advertising for the national insurance.

During Gerstenberg's management activity, Victoria zu Berlin rose to become the leading German life insurance company. In 1913 the company had a portfolio of 3.93 million insurance policies with 806 million marks insured and an annual new business of 432,000 policies with the national insurance alone. In addition, Gerstenberg founded Victoria Feuer-Versicherungs-AG in 1904 with the areas of fire, burglary and water damage as a major subsidiary.

As an entrepreneur, Gerstenberg introduced remarkable social benefits for the employees of Victoria zu Berlin . From 1903, this included the non-working Saturday afternoon (from 12 noon) and a little later the establishment of a factory kitchen. Both achievements were not yet common in the industry at the time. On the other hand, Gerstenberg was one of the highest-paid managers in his branch. He owned up to 15% of the shares in Victoria zu Berlin and was able to set his own annual salary as general manager. His annual salary of 800,000 marks was even discussed as excessive in a debate in the Reichstag in 1914.

At the age of 65, Otto Gerstenberg resigned from the position of general director and took over the chairmanship of the insurance supervisory board, which he held until shortly before his death. In this function, he was mainly involved in rebuilding international business after the First World War.

family and friends

Otto Gerstenberg, painting by Max Liebermann 1919
Tombstone

In 1884 Otto Gerstenberg married Elise Wilhelmine Winzerling († 1926), eighteen years his junior, daughter of a manor owner. From this marriage two daughters were born. Ada Josepha Elise, born in 1886, died as a child, while Margarethe, born in 1889, outlived her parents. Margarethe married the physicist Hans Georg Scharf in 1921 and had two sons. Otto Gerstenberg's grandson Dieter Scharf (1926–2001) later continued his grandfather's work as a collector.

Little is known about Gerstenberg's circle of friends. There is evidence of close contacts with the painters Max Liebermann , Joseph Oppenheimer (1876–1966) and Max Slevogt , who portrayed Gerstenberg. There is also evidence of a long relationship with the Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart . It is believed that Liebermann was in contact with Hugo von Tschudi , Carl and Felicie Bernstein and Eduard Arnhold .

Villa Gerstenberg

The Gerstenberg family initially lived on Großbeerenstraße in Berlin-Kreuzberg and later moved to the villa colony in Berlin-Lichterfelde . Carl Vohl , one of the architects of the Moabit Criminal Court , designed an Art Nouveau villa for Gerstenberg in the then newly created colony of Dahlem (today Berlin-Schmargendorf ) in the years 1904–1905 . The city palace, located between Bernadotte, Hammerstein and Miquelstrasse, was given its own gallery wing between 1908 and 1910 for Otto Gerstenberg's art collection. Today the property is parceled out and the former park-like character is only partially recognizable. The villa itself was used as a private park sanatorium in Dahlem for several years (1946–2013) and is no longer family-owned. At the moment (2020) the building is being converted back into a villa in accordance with the listed building regulations.

In addition to Otto Gerstenberg's art collection, the villa also contained interior furnishings, some of which consisted of precious handicrafts. This included, for example, Japanese works and chinoiseries such as teapots, small sculptures, lacquer work and vases. In addition to heavy German oak furniture, there were Empire tables, chairs and consoles or baroque and rococo furniture from the period from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. as well as Flemish tapestries .

The Gerstenberg Collection

Francisco de Goya:
French punishment
today: Hermitage
Saint Petersburg

Thanks to his considerable fortune, Otto Gerstenberg was able to build up one of the most important art collections in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. The focus of the collection was on graphic works and paintings from the 19th century. In particular, his collection of French Impressionist painting was considered controversial at the time of acquisition and contradicted the official cultural policy shaped by the Berlin Art Academy and Kaiser Wilhelm II , which criticized French modernism as superficial and insignificant in terms of subject matter. Gerstenberg bought only a few works from Berlin dealers, but acquired the works of art almost exclusively from dealers or at auctions in Paris. Here he also used the Parisian sales representatives of his insurance company as intermediaries. Gerstenberg occasionally lent works from his collection for exhibition purposes and opened his house to students and art enthusiasts upon request.

The graphic collection

Gerstenberg began collecting in the 1890s with Dutch and German graphics from the 15th and 17th centuries. These included artists such as Albrecht Dürer , Martin Schongauer , Lucas van Leyden , Anthonis van Dyck , Salomon van Ruisdael , Jan Steen , Adriaen van Ostade and Rembrandt van Rijn . Graphics by James McNeill Whistler , Félicien Rops , Otto Greiner , Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot , Jean-François Millet , Edgar Degas , Édouard Manet , Robert Dodd , Anders Zorn , Adolph von Menzel , Max Klinger , Wilhelm Leibl and Max were soon added Dear man . In addition, works by the Japanese artists Hokusai and Utamaro belonged to this collection. The focus of the graphic collection, however, was Francisco de Goya , Honoré Daumier and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec .

The painting collection

Gerstenberg began his painting collection initially with works of British landscape painting from the early 19th century, which were popular at the time, including several paintings by John Constable . There was also a portrait of Joshua Reynolds and soon several works by El Greco and Francisco de Goya . Further paintings in this first phase of collecting were by Salomon van Ruysdael , Meindest Hobbema , Jan van Goyen , Jan Steen and Adriaen van Ostade .

Gerstenberg's collection of paintings was best known for its important collection of 19th century French paintings. Starting with Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault , this collection also included paintings from the School of Barbizon by Charles-François Daubigny and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot , as well as works of realism by Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier . Gerstenberg owned more than 30 paintings by Daumier alone (including “Le fardeau”). Among the ten paintings by Courbet were "Le réveil ou Venus et Psyché", "Portrait de Marc Trapadoux" and "Portrait de Henry Rochefort". The works of Impressionism were considered the highlight of the painting collection . Gerstenberg preferred portraits and neglected landscapes. He acquired only one picture from Claude Monet with “Cour de ferme” from 1865. Gerstenberg owned a total of seven paintings by Édouard Manet , including major works such as "Au café" and "Pertuiset als Löwenjäger". Among the five paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir were “Homme sur un escalier”, “Femme sur un escalier” and “Dans le jardin”. Gerstenberg also acquired two landscapes from Alfred Sisley with “Femme à l'ombrelle” and “Bords de rivière” . The collector also owned some oil paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , who was already well represented in the graphic collection . These included “Un coin du Moulin de la Galette”, “Au bal de l'Opéra”, “Messaline descend l'escalier bordé de figurantes” and “La Comtesse de T.-L. dans un jardin ”. One of the most famous pictures in the collection was “Place de la Concorde” by Edgar Degas , which Gerstenberg acquired in 1911 for the very high price of 120,000 francs at the time .

  • Honoré Daumier:
    The imaginary patient
    today: Hermitage
    Saint Petersburg

  • Gustave Courbet:
    Portrait of Gustave Mathieu
    today: Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz'
    Winterthur

  • Edgar Degas:
    Place de la Concorde
    today: Hermitage
    Saint Petersburg

  • Édouard Manet:
    Au café
    today: Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz'
    Winterthur

  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
    Dans le jardin
    today: Hermitage
    Saint Petersburg

  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
    Femme sur un escalier
    today: Hermitage
    Saint Petersburg

  • Édouard Manet:
    Pertuiset, the lion hunter
    today: Museu de Arte
    São Paulo

  • Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:
    Un coin du Moulin de la Galette
    today: National Gallery
    Washington

The fate of the collection

Otto Gerstenberg sold only a few works from his collection during his lifetime. It is known that in 1922 he parted with the collection of old master prints and the Dutch paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries. After Gerstenberg's death in 1935, his daughter Margarethe Scharf inherited the collection. However, they did not live in their parents' villa, but had their own house built by Hans Scharoun in 1937 on the large property of the Palais Gerstenberg . Since she could not accommodate all of her father's pictures in this smaller house, she deposited many of the large-format pictures in the Victoria-Versicherung magazine in Lindenstrasse in Berlin . During a bombing raid during World War II, this part of the Victoria building was destroyed and all the paintings stored there were burned. This included, for example, Courbet's "Le réveil ou Venus et Psyché". In April 1943, Margarethe Scharf gave a large part of the collection to the Nationalgalerie for safekeeping because of the increased bombing raids on Berlin. The latter also used the anti-aircraft towers , which were considered safe , to store their own collections. On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops occupied the flak towers and subsequently transported the art collections in them to the USSR. Numerous works from the Gerstenberg collection are now looted art in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow . These include “Le fardeau” by Daumier, “Dans le jardin” by Renoir, “The Monk” by El Greco and “Place de la Concorde” by Degas.

During the war and shortly afterwards, Margarethe Scharf transported the remaining works in the collection, partly by train and partly by farmer's wagon, to Oberstdorf in Bavaria, where the family also owned an estate. Due to economic difficulties in the post-war period, Margarethe Scharf was forced to sell some important works. In 1953 she sold Manet's “Au café” to the Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart . Part of the original Gerstenberg collection is still owned by the family today. This includes the world's most comprehensive collection of Toulouse-Lautrec's original graphics. This collection has repeatedly been exhibited in public, for example in Vienna in 2003, in Chemnitz in 2004 and in Luxembourg and Munich in 2005. Shortly before his death (2001), Otto Gerstenberg's grandson Dieter Scharf founded the “Dieter Scharf Collection Foundation in Memory of Otto Gerstenberg”. From July 2008 the works of art from this foundation can be seen in the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. This also includes graphics by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco de Goya, Charles Meryon, Victor Hugo, Édouard Manet and Max Klinger from the Otto Gerstenberg collection.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Musicians or shoemakers" in Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin, p. 153
  2. ^ "Shoemaker" in Peter Koch:  Gerstenberg, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 327 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 153.
  4. ^ A b c Peter Koch:  Gerstenberg, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 327 ( digitized version ).
  5. ^ Ludwig Arps: German insurance company. P. 136.
  6. ^ Ludwig Arps: German insurance company. P. 137.
  7. ^ Ludwig Arps: German insurance company. P. 138.
  8. ^ Ludwig Arps: German insurance company. P. 139.
  9. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 154.
  10. ↑ Meeting of February 11, 1914, minutes p. 7231 in: Ludwig Arps: Deutsche Versicherungsunternehmer. P. 143.
  11. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 152 and p. 165.
  12. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 156 f.
  13. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 152 f.
  14. ^ A b Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 155.
  15. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 156.
  16. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. P. 159.
  17. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. Pp. 160-165.
  18. ^ Thomas W. Gaehtgens, Julietta Scharf: The Otto Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin. Pp. 167-169.
personal data
SURNAME Gerstenberg, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager in the insurance industry and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Pyritz
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1935
Place of death Berlin