Siegmund Jacob

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Siegmund Jacob , alternative spelling Siegmund Jakob (* March 7, 1874 in Schwarzenau ; † February 8, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ), was a German film producer and film manager.

Life

Siegmund Jacob is one of the now forgotten film managers of the German silent film, although at times he was one of the most colorful and powerful representatives of the domestic cinema industry. Born in Westphalia, he probably had a commercial training before founding the Frankfurter Film-Compagnie, a film distribution company, in 1911. During the First World War , Jacob switched to film production, and in 1917 he can be identified as a producer in three films. In 1918, UFA , which had been founded at the end of the previous year, brought him to its board of directors, and the rental business was transferred to him.

Presumably own inability and intrigues within the company gradually sidelined Jacob from the mid-1920s, when the UFA was increasingly in financial difficulties due to increasing waste and management errors. Although he was appointed to the board of directors of Germany's most powerful production company in 1925, Jacob was already pushed out of the UFA in March 1927, which was subjected to massive austerity measures by the new general director Ludwig Klitzsch . In 1928 a criminal complaint was filed against Jacob. According to the accusation, the former head of distribution “received a commission of up to 25 percent for individual imported films 'for extra effort'. Jacob bought foreign films against his better judgment for far too high prices, so that they had to be a loss for Ufa. ”This raised the accusation of corruption. As part of a badly negotiated UFA film distribution deal with the American major companies MGM and Paramount (joint company “Parufamet”), the German giant had become heavily dependent on its much stronger US partners. In spite of the complicity of the negligently controlling Deutsche Bank boss and UFA supervisory board member Emil Georg von Stauß , this was mainly attributed to Siegmund Jacob.

The professional descent of the resigned UFA board member and board member of the Central Association of German Film Distributors went hand in hand with Jacobs' private financial decline. Around 1925/26 he had a luxurious villa built on Schwielowsee, which has obviously been a major financial burden for him since leaving the UFA. Between 1927 and 1929 there were already five creditors in the land register, and in January 1932 Siegmund Jacob had to have his property foreclosed. In November 1932 the property was sold well below value for 80,7000 RM.

De facto broke and ostracized by the new rulers, Siegmund Jacob, as he was Jewish, fled to France after the Nazis seized power and was quickly forgotten there. His situation worsened dramatically after the German Wehrmacht occupied France in 1940 . On February 3, 1944, Siegmund Jacob was deported with the 67th transport from Drancy to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where he was gassed immediately after his arrival.

Filmography

as producer / line manager

literature

  • Kurt Mühsam / Egon Jacobsohn: Lexicon of the film . Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926. p. 83

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Siegmund Jacob in "At UFA they did it like that ...", in: Der Spiegel from November 29, 1950
  2. ^ Siegmund Jacob in "Kino - Das große Traumgeschäft", in: Der Spiegel from November 22, 1950
  3. ^ Siegmund Jacob on books.google.de
  4. ^ Siegmund Jacob on yadvashem.org
personal data
SURNAME Jacob, Siegmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jakob, Siegmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer and film manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwarzenau
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp