Otto Wesendonck (businessman)

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Otto Wesendonck (relief by Joseph Kopf , 1865)

Otto Friedrich Ludwig Wesendonck , also Wesendonk (born March 16, 1815 in Elberfeld , today a district of Wuppertal , † November 18, 1896 in Berlin ), was a German merchant and patron of the arts and promoted Richard Wagner in particular . One of his brothers was the lawyer and politician Hugo Wesendonck .

biography

The Wesendonck family, who from the 17th century lived as respected merchants mainly in Xanten on the Lower Rhine , is of Dutch origin (van der Wesendonk). Otto Wesendonck also became a businessman and traveled to America for an Elberfeld trading company at the age of 18. After his return he took over the representation of the trading house Loeschigk, Wesendonk & Co for Europe.

Villa Wesendonck in Zurich, today the Rietberg Museum

He married in 1844, but a few months later he lost his first wife to death. He settled in Düsseldorf , where he married Agnes Luckemeyer for the second time in 1848, who for his sake took the name of his first wife Mathilde and became the mother of his five children. Otto and Mathilde Wesendonck lived at Schwanenmarkt 1 until 1851 .

In 1850 he withdrew from all business and settled with a large fortune in Zurich , where he initially lived in the hotel " Baur au Lac ". In the spring of 1855 he built a stately villa on the “green hill” in the suburb of Enge , in which he lived with his family from 1857 and, among other things, acquired a large art collection.

In 1872 he sold this Villa Wesendonck - which today houses the Rietberg Museum - and moved to Dresden . For the summer months he acquired the “Traunblick” country estate on Lake Traunsee in the Salzkammergut . In autumn 1882 he settled in Berlin, where he died in his house in 1896.

Richard Wagner

In January 1852, at a concert in Zurich, he met Richard Wagner , who was conducting there, and supported him financially from 1853. From 1857 he made the garden house of his villa available to Richard Wagner, who called it his “Asylum”, which he left a year later after the affair with Mathilde.

In 1858 Wesendonck bought the rights to perform the " Ring des Nibelungen ", but later renounced compliance with the contract with Wagner, so that the property rights could go to the Bavarian King Ludwig II . Despite the affair between Wagner and his wife, he remained on friendly terms with him, which is documented in an extensive correspondence. The correspondence was published in 1903, including the letters between his wife and Wagner.

literature

  • Jörg Aufenanger: Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck. An artist's love. Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-491-35010-6 .
  • Martha Schad : "My first and only love". Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck. Langen Müller, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7844-2881-9 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wesendonck, Otto, Kaufmann, Schwanenm. 1307 , in the apartment gazette and address book of the mayor's office in Düsseldorf, 1850
personal data
SURNAME Wesendonck, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wesendonck, Otto Friedrich Ludwig (full name); Wesendonk, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and patron
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1896
Place of death Berlin