Siegfried Guggenheim

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Siegfried Guggenheim in uniform, 1916

Siegfried Guggenheim (born October 12, 1873 in Worms , † January 31, 1961 in Flushing , New York , United States ) was a German lawyer , notary and art collector . He had to leave Germany in 1938 because of his Jewish descent and emigrated to the United States .

Life

Guggenheim came from a Jewish merchant family. In 1900 the doctor of law established himself as a lawyer in Offenbach am Main and was appointed as a notary in 1919. Guggenheim was heavily involved in Offenbach's cultural and social life and was a member of numerous organizations. His interests were particularly in art and Jewish culture. He was friends with the type artist Rudolf Koch , supported artists like Friedrich Heinrichsen and commissioned numerous works of art. In the 1920s, tapestries with texts from the Haggadah , which are still in the Klingspor Museum today , and the so-called Offenbach Haggadah with illustrations by Fritz Kredel were created .

He also took an active part in Jewish life. He was a member of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith and from 1933 to 1939 chairman of the Offenbach Jewish Community. In 1912 he initiated the construction of the synagogue in Offenbach with Max Goldschmidt , then chairman of the Jewish community .

When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, his license to practice as a notary was withdrawn, and in November 1938 he was admitted to the bar. After the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938, he was imprisoned and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp . After a few weeks, he was released in December - presumably on condition that he had to leave Germany. In the same month he emigrated with his wife Eugenie (1878-1984) to Flushing in New York. In 1941 both of them were stripped of their German citizenship. An exchange of letters with the Frankfurt journalist and social worker Martha Wertheimer from her exile has been handed down and published until she was deported.

Siegfried Guggenheim's gravestone in the old cemetery in Offenbach am Main

In 1948 Siegfried Guggenheim was made an honorary citizen of Offenbach . In addition, the Siegfried-Guggenheim-Weg in Offenbach's Lauterborn district is named after him. Although he never wanted to return to Germany, he wanted to be buried there. His urn was buried in his wife's family grave in the old cemetery in Offenbach.

literature

  • Fritz Bauer Institute (Ed.): Martha Wertheimer. "The great dark calm has come into me". Letters to Siegfried Guggenheim in New York, written from May 27, 1939 to September 2, 1941. Frankfurt am Main 1996
  • Siegfried Guggenheim (Ed.): Offenbacher Haggadah. (with illustrations by Fritz Kredel) 1927 (2nd edition 1960)
  • Guggenheim, Siegfried. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 10: Güde – Hein. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-22690-X , pp. 22-28.

exhibition

  • 2011: Believing in the exquisite - Siegfried Guggenheim - A Jewish patron of the art of books and writing , Klingspor Museum , Offenbach

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Guggenheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klingspor Museum on the Offenbach Haggadah
  2. ^ The former synagogue in Offenbach. From: offenbach.de , accessed on January 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ Jewish-Christian community. In: FAZ of August 24, 2011, page 41
personal data
SURNAME Guggenheim, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, notary and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Worms
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1961
Place of death Flushing , New York , USA