Salomon Heine

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Salomon Heine on a painting by Carl Gröger

Salomon Heine (born October 19, 1767 in Hanover ; died December 23, 1844 in Hamburg ) was a wealthy Hamburg merchant and banker . He arrived penniless in Hamburg in 1784 and made a considerable fortune in the following years. He became known as a benefactor in Hamburg and a patron of his nephew, the poet Heinrich Heine . Because of his wealth - he left the equivalent of 110 million euros - he was called the “ Rothschild of Hamburg”.

Life

Heine House in Hamburg

Heine learned the banking business at the Popert bank in Hamburg. He then went into business for himself as an exchange broker and worked in close collaboration with Emanuel Anton von Halle. In 1797 he founded the private banking house Heckscher & Co. together with Marcus Abraham Heckscher (1770–1823) . In 1818, now the sole managing director, he changed the name of the company to Salomon Heine . In the following years he rose to become one of the most successful Hamburg bankers of his time. He had his country house in Ottensen, west of Hamburg and Altona (today's address: Elbchaussee 31). The associated garden house is now an event location called Heine-Haus .

Patron of the poet Heinrich Heine

Salomon Heine let the young Heinrich Heine do an apprenticeship in his banking house Heckscher & Co. in Hamburg and then enabled him to set up his own business with the cloth business Harry Heine & Comp. However, Heine, who had fallen in love with Solomon's daughter Amalie , preferred to devote himself to poetry and showed little interest in the business. After a short time he had to file for bankruptcy. Salomon Heine was annoyed that his nephew was devoting himself to what he saw as the art of poetry , which he thought was breadless . This lack of understanding is passed down in the saying “If he had learned something right, he would not have to write books”. In spite of everything, the banker financed his law studies and supported him with regular cash payments. After Solomon's death, his son Carl initially stopped these payments, so that there was an inheritance dispute with his cousin Heinrich.

Hamburg benefactor

Salomon Heine's generosity and his importance as a benefactor are expressed in an anecdote: Representatives of an order who intended to build a hospital asked wealthy Hamburgers for money for their project. The order was asked to first visit the Jewish banker Heine. They agreed to donate the same amount as Heine and one thaler more. The religious told Salomon Heine about the reaction of the other wealthy citizens. Heine asked for the price for the hospital and paid exactly half of it. The remaining merchants, who were bound by their word, had to pay the remaining costs for the hospital.

Adolph Kohut tells this anecdote differently, as follows:

“When the Ottensians once wanted to build a school and organized a public collection for this purpose, they first turned to Salomon Heine with a request to open the subscription list. He remarked that it would look strange if he were at the top as a Jew, and he therefore asked the collectors to turn to some of the wealthiest Christian residents of Hamburg first, and then to collect the missing remainder of the necessary money from him. The list immediately went to a neighbor of Hamburg's Croesus, who, having been informed of the preceding, immediately signed half of the required sum with the marginal gloss: 'From Christian love'. Now the sheet came back to Heine's hands, and Heine drew the second half of the building capital with the comment: 'From Jewish love'. "

Memorial stone for Salomon Heine on the new building of the Israelite Hospital he founded

In addition, the banker Heine worked as a patron throughout his life and, after the devastating fire in Hamburg in 1842, participated in the reconstruction of the Hanseatic city with his private fortune. Among other things, he announced that he would accept bills of exchange up to 15,000 marks from every merchant in distress . He also donated the Israelite Hospital in memory of his wife Betty, who died in 1837. Heinrich Heine paid tribute to his uncle's foundation with the poem Das neue Israelitische Hospital zu Hamburg , which appeared in the New Poems Collection in 1844 . It says:

(...)
The dear man! He built a shelter here
for ailments which can be cured by the arts of the
doctor (or even death!)
, Provided for cushions, refreshment, maintenance and care -

a man of action, he did what was just possible;
For good works he gave the daily wages in the
evening of his life, in a philanthropic
manner, recovering from work by doing good.
(...)

The Patriotic Society made Heine an honorary member in 1843. She had never taken in a professed Jew before. What this exceptional personality had really meant for Hamburg was impressively demonstrated at his funeral: “It turned into a mute demonstration of his unifying popularity. Thousands of Hamburg residents, Jews and Christians alike, accompanied him on his last way to Ottensen ”.

In his will, Heine paid tribute to his workers and employees and donated 8,000 Courantmarks to rebuild two churches.

In 1865, Heinestrasse in Hamburg was named after Salomon Heine. Under the National Socialists , the street was renamed Hamburger Berg in 1938. An initiative for another name change has so far been unsuccessful.

Salomon Heine banking house

The bank with the name Salomon Heine was continued after Salomon Heine's death by his son Carl Heine (1810–1865) and only went into liquidation after the latter's death.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Salomon Heine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adolph Kohut: Famous Israelite Men and Women in the Cultural History of Mankind. Life and character images from the past and present. 2nd volume, AH Payne, Leipzig-Reudnitz 1901.
  2. ^ A b c Eckart Klessmann: History of the city of Hamburg. Die Hanse , Sabine Groenewold Verlage, Hamburg 2002, p. 464 ff.
  3. ^ Susanne Wiborg: Heine, Salomon . In: Institute for the history of the German Jews (ed.): The Jewish Hamburg. A historical reference work , Hamburg 2006, p. 110.
  4. ↑ Hamburger Berg. In: Hamburg.de. Retrieved June 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Heine, Salomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hamburg merchant and banker
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1844
Place of death Hamburg