Otto Lemm (manufacturer)

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Otto Lemm (born November 1, 1867 ; † October 18, 1920 in Berlin ) was a German entrepreneur who was best known as a manufacturer of shoe polish items. The Villa Lemm in Berlin-Gatow was his last residence and still bears his name to this day.

Act as an entrepreneur

Advertising poster by Hans Lindenstaedt (1905)

In 1893 Otto Lemm and his business partner Paul Urban founded the Charlottenburg chemical factory Urban & Lemm , which focused on the production of shoe polish and metal cleaning agents. The Urbin branded product was one of the best-known items .

In 1898, Lemm and his company acquired a building complex built by Ernst Nürnberg in 1884 on the site of today's Charlottenburg Lock Island . After massive renovations , a three-storey clinker brick building was built in 1900 , which among other things housed a spacious warehouse.

The company finally added another five-story building to the complex in 1909. With its brands, Lemm was one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his time.

Lemm did not experience the relocation of production to Berlin-Reinickendorf in 1920. With the exception of a studio building on Nonnendammallee , all of the company's buildings have now disappeared.

Otto Lemm was a freemason . He and his wife Clara had four children - two sons and two daughters.

Villa Lemm

1907 Lemm came in from the Rothenbücher way later in the Berlin district Gatow by the architect Max Werner , with whom he was a close friend, on a plot acquired water on the Havel a villa in the English built country house style, the project was completed 1908th In the following years Lemm gradually expanded the property to a total area of ​​approx. 24,000 m².

The Villa Lemm is considered to be one of the most beautiful and important upper-class properties in Berlin and still bears its name today.

Lemm's widow Clara sold the villa to his doctor friend János Plesch in 1928 and had the Clara Lemm country house built by the architect Walter Ahnert , which is also located in Berlin-Gatow and is now a listed building and houses a day-care center.

Mausoleum Lemm

Exterior view of the Lemm family mausoleum
The prayer room in the mausoleum

Shortly before his 53rd birthday, Lemm died in October 1920 after a long and serious suffering. It rests in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Berlin-Westend , which is located near his former company headquarters and on which he had a mausoleum built for his family from 1917 . The design came again from Max Werner.

The mausoleum is a brick building in the neo-Romanesque style , the walls of which are clad with stone and plaster. The floor plan corresponds to the shape of a Greek cross . The abundance of different materials that were used in the construction is surprising: iron and wrought iron, glass and glass mosaic, marble, bronze, stucco, lead, wood and textiles. The two ceremonial coffins of the Lemm couple, also designed by Werner, still stand in the building's crypt, although both no longer rest here: their remains have been reburied next to the mausoleum due to repeated burglaries after the Second World War.

Particularly impressive is the 42 m² prayer room of the building, on whose marble-clad walls three mosaics with a total area of ​​80 m² are embedded. It was made by the Puhl & Wagner company . The mosaics reflect the family's coexistence at home. The Villa Lemm is also shown.

The mausoleum is one of the most magnificent tomb structures in Berlin. It was restored between 1998 and 2006.

Web links

Commons : Otto Lemm  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary in the Vossische Zeitung , October 19, 1920, morning edition, p. 7.
  2. ↑ Landhaus Clara Lemm. In: Landesdenkmalamt Berlin. Accessed April 4, 2018 (German).
  3. ↑ Our house. In: Förderverein Kita Biberburg. Accessed April 4, 2018 (German).
  4. ↑ Obituary in the Vossische Zeitung of October 19, 1920, morning edition, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Otto Lemm. In: Save Berlin tombs. Accessed April 4, 2018 (German).
  6. ↑ Carsten Schanz: The Villa Lemm is half-mast. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit e. V. August 23, 2013, accessed April 4, 2018 (German).
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 477.
  8. ^ Otto Lemm on the 91st anniversary of his death. In: Foundation for historical church yards and cemeteries Berlin-Brandenburg. Accessed April 4, 2018 (German). . Mende: Lexicon of Berlin Burial Sites , p. 477.
  9. ↑ Shoe polish made him rich. In: Tagesspiegel Online. November 13, 2005, accessed April 4, 2018 (German).
  10. ^ Mende: Lexicon of Berlin Burial Sites , p. 477.
personal data
SURNAME Lemm, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1867
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1920
Place of death Berlin