Otto Krebs

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Otto Krebs (born March 25, 1873 in Wiesbaden , † March 26, 1941 in Heidelberg ) was a German manufacturer and art collector . His collection of Impressionist paintings with works by Cézanne , van Gogh and Gauguin was brought to Leningrad by the Soviet troops after the Second World War . Today the collection is owned by the Hermitage, with the exception of a few works that have been lost .

Life and professional history

Otto Krebs was born on March 25, 1873 in Wiesbaden as the son of the senior teacher and later physics professor Dr. Georg Krebs and his wife Charlotte Luise were born. He first completed technical studies at the Polytechnic in Berlin and later a degree in philosophy in Zurich, which he completed in 1897 with a dissertation. After completing his studies, Krebs first became commercial director of the Hamburg company Rudolf Otto Meyer and in 1906 finally managing director of the newly founded Strebelwerke in Mannheim, which under his leadership rose to become the most important manufacturer of boilers and steam boilers of the time.

The company's success goes back to an invention by the engineer Joseph Strebel, who in 1893 had received a patent for a "sectional boiler" (counterflow sectional boiler DRP No. 76582). Such a construction offered two advantages: On the one hand, the boiler could be assembled from individual sections depending on the required heating output, which considerably reduced the production costs. On the other hand, it was now easier to move boilers into the designated basement rooms. The company itself, which still exists under this name today, claims that Strebel received a patent on December 23, 1893 for a “sectional boiler with O-shaped elements and heating channels” that revolutionized heating technology. The three-pass principle developed by Strebel guarantees, in connection with the fire-resistant special cast iron GG-20, the best efficiency with the lowest emissions.

Otto Krebs succeeded in considerably increasing sales at the Strebelwerke. The money he made enabled him to build up his art collection. Around 1930, Krebs' partner, the pianist Frieda Kwast-Hodapp, moved to Gut Holzdorf, which had previously been used as a retreat by Adolf Busch and his string quartet.

Cancer later developed the disease of the same name , from which he died in 1941. He bequeathed a large part of his fortune to the “Foundation for Cancer and Scarlet Fever Research”, which is still active today as part of the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg.

Landgut Holzdorf - former home of the collection

The manor house of the Holzdorf estate in summer 2008

Holzdorf is a district in the south of Weimar (Thuringia), which Krebs is said to have got to know on his travels between Mannheim - the seat of the Strebelwerke - and the company's manufacturing facilities in Bohemia and Silesia . Krebs fell in love with these spots, recognized the potential also from an economic point of view and in 1917 bought the Holzdorf estate, which had existed since the 13th century. Krebs had the manor house extensively rebuilt to create a worthy setting for his art collection. After the National Socialists came to power in 1935, instead of French paintings, Belgian tapestries and gold-embellished leather wallpapers were placed on the walls of the representative rooms. In 1926, Krebs had safes built into the manor house and the administrator's house for his art treasures. Although his collection survived the Second World War unscathed, it was transported away by the Soviet occupation forces after the Allied victory in 1949.

The Otto Krebs Collection

After purchasing the estate, Otto Krebs began collecting a wide variety of art objects - from antique furniture to modern paintings. It is noteworthy that he acquired only a few exhibits from the Romantic Age , although he was enthusiastic about this area. The focus of his collection is on the period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to Albert Kostenewitsch, Krebs "was similar in his inclinations to the American collector Albert C. Barnes , but he often showed better judgment and did not buy in such large quantities". Therefore, without exception, all of his Cezannes are of excellent quality. Five paintings showed his work in its full range - still life, portrait, figurative composition and landscape - and they all could safely be described as masterpieces. The same thing, so Kostenewitsch, could be said about the works of van Gogh and Gauguin. All of these acquisitions differed massively from one another, because Otto Krebs endeavored at the same time to seek a representative selection from the entire work of the painter, as well as to emphasize his special qualities.

Works

Hermann Lotze's concept of science. Inaugural dissertation philosopher. Fac. Of the Univ. Zurich, 1897, Altenburg, 112 pp.

Web sites

Commons : Collection Otto Krebs  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Hartmut Boettcher : Cancer, Otto . In: Lebenswege in Thüringen , Fifth Collection, Vopelius, Jena 2015, pp. 160–165.
  • Ulrike Oberländer: The art collector Dr. Otto Krebs, his partner Frieda Kwast-Hodapp and the manor Holzdorf. Diss. Phil. Fac. Jena, 2015, 820 pp.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Albert Kostenewitsch: From the Hermitage. Lost masterpieces in German private collections . Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Kindler, Munich 1995, p. 15.
  2. ↑ Andrea Pophanken, Felix Billeter: The modern age and their collectors . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 288.
  3. ↑ Brochure: Landgut Holzdorf - Education, Recreation, Care. Förderverein Landgut Holzdorf eV No year.
personal data
SURNAME Cancer, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manufacturer and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1941
Place of death Heidelberg