Siegmund Seligmann

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Bust of Siegmund Seligmann

Siegmund Seligmann (born August 19, 1853 in Verden (Aller) ; died October 12, 1925 in Hanover ) was a German businessman and entrepreneur , the first general director of the Gummiwerke Continental AG in Hanover.

Life

Portrait of Siegmund Seligmann painted by Max Liebermann in 1910 , and before that Andor Izsák in the Villa Seligmann

Siegmund Seligmann was born the son of a Jewish leather merchant in Verden, where he grew up and attended the cathedral high school. He then completed a commercial apprenticeship in Moritz Meyer's factory in Harburg . Then he moved to Hanover to take up his first job as a cashier at the Moritz Magnus bank . In 1876 he was commissioned by his boss Magnus to examine the financial situation of the "Continental Caoutchouc & Gutta-Percha-Compagnie" founded in 1871, the forerunner of Continental AG , in Hanover. Seligmann found the company viable and, as a reward for his solid work, was asked by the company's supervisory board, to which Magnus also belonged, to take over the management of the company. This happened on April 7, 1876, and in September of the same year Seligmann became an authorized signatory and in 1879 - at the age of 26 - commercial director and board member.

This marked the beginning of the rise of Continental AG, which at that time had around 250 employees, to become one of the largest rubber and tire producers in Germany (1914: 13,000 employees). Together with the chemist Adolf Prinzhorn , Seligmann provided the necessary innovation boost. In 1892, Continental AG was the first German company to manufacture pneumatic bicycle tires (so-called "Pneumatics"), and in 1898 it began producing pneumatic tires for automobiles without a profile. The beginning of the automobile age at the beginning of the 20th century was the great hour of Continental AG: In 1904 the company was the first in the world to develop tread tires for automobiles. The export could be increased significantly, in many places factory branches were established. The plant in Hanover-Vahrenwald was greatly expanded, in 1912 the architect Peter Behrens designed the construction of a representative administration building on Vahrenwalder Straße (today the technology center of the city of Hanover ).

Seligmann and the bed feather manufacturer August Werner , also a councilor of commerce, gave the city of Hanover the two imperial statues : the more than 3 meter high bronze statues of Kaiser Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II were created by the Berlin sculptor and professor Adolf Brütt . They were set up at the side of the grand staircase in the central hall of the New Town Hall but melted down for armaments production during World War II .

Grave site at the Engesohde city cemetery

Siegmund Seligmann refused all his life to bear the title of General Director, but he did not refuse other honors. In 1905 he was appointed to the Council of Commerce , in 1914 to the Privy Council of Commerce, in 1921 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Hanover and in 1923 (on the occasion of his 70th birthday) an honorary citizen of the city of Hanover. From 1919 until his death in 1925 he was a member of the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society .

Since 1883 he was married to Johanna Coppel (1861–1949), the daughter of an industrialist from Solingen . In 1903/1906 he had an Art Nouveau villa built by the architect Hermann Schaedtler at Hohenzollernstrasse 39, directly on the Eilenriede forest ( Villa Seligmann ). Hanover's city director Heinrich Tramm , the Hanoverian industrialist Fritz Beindorff and the Harburg rubber industrialist Calmon were among his circle of friends, and Siegmund Seligmann had Max Liebermann portray himself in oil.

His management style at Continental AG was seen as patriarchal but human. Since he used to visit the office on Sundays, the executives had to do the same. While he was still alive, Seligmann looked after his representative grave at the Engesohde city cemetery , as it was due to a member of the upper bourgeoisie and honorary citizen. His in-house architect Hermann Schaedtler designed a high obelisk as a tomb, which is lifted out within a larger burial section (Section 28) by a symmetrical pathway.

Siegmund Seligmann died in 1925 at the age of 72. His widow Johanna moved to Switzerland and died in Lucerne in 1949. His son Edgar, who had joined the Continental Supervisory Board in 1921 under the aegis of his father, sold the villa in 1931 for financial reasons and left the company in 1932. He was arrested on November 9, 1938, expropriated and a few weeks later brought to Switzerland, where he died shortly afterwards.

Seligmannallee was named after him in Hanover.

Siegmund Seligmann Foundation

The Villa Seligmann , seen from the Eilenriede

Siegmund Seligmann was chosen as the namesake of the foundation under civil law with legal capacity, which was initiated by Andor Izsák in order to promote research into Jewish music and music history. It supports the work of the European Center for Jewish Music , an institute of the Hanover University of Music and Theater since 1992 . For this purpose, she acquired the Villa Seligmann at Hohenzollernstrasse 39 in 2006 , and in 2008 the building was ready to move into after renovations.

literature

  • Alexander Engel:  Seligmann, Siegmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 222 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hans Theodor Schmidt in: Life and Fate. For the inauguration of the synagogue in Hanover. Published by the state capital Hanover, press office, in cooperation with the Jewish community of Hanover. Buchdruckwerkstätten Hannover, Hannover 1963, pp. 102–110.
  • Hans Theodor Schmidt: Continental. A century of progress and achievement 1871–1971. Edited by Continental-Gummi-Werke-Aktiengesellschaft. Hanover 1971.
  • Walter Tetzlaff: 2000 short biographies of important German Jews of the 20th century. Askania-Verlag, Lindhorst 1982, ISBN 3-921730-10-4 .
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Seligmann, Siegmund. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , pp. 331f, 332. ( online via Google books )
  • Peter Schulze : Siegmund Seligman (1853-1925). In: Andor Izsák (ed.): History and vision. 100 years of Villa Seligmann. ed. from the Siegmund Seligmann Foundation. gutenberg beuys, Hannover 2006, pp. 17-25.
  • Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Seligmann, Siegmund. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 562f.
  • Hugo Thielen (arrangement): Seligmann, Siegmund. In: Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen (Ed.): Jewish personalities in Hanover's history. Completely revised, expanded and updated new edition. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hannover 2013, ISBN 978-3-7859-1163-1 , pp. 11, 93–96, 124, 158.
  • Berthold Burkhardt: Repair and new use of the Villa Seligmann in Hanover. In: Reports on the preservation of monuments in Lower Saxony, issue 2/2013, Hanover.

Web links

Commons : Siegmund Seligmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. Petra Spona: "The equipment of a town hall is an area in which the public spirit of the citizenry can be active". In: Cornelia Regin (Ed.): Splendor and Power. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the New Town Hall in Hanover ( Hannoversche Studien , Volume 14). Hahn, Hannover 2013, ISBN 978-3-7752-4964-5 , pp. 227–248, here: pp. 229f, 238f.
  2. Note: Deviating from this, in the article on August Werner in the Hanoverian Biographical Lexicon and in the City Lexicon of Hanover, the bed spring manufacturer is named as the sole donor.
  3. ^ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Werner, (1) August. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover. P. 672.
  4. The painting is in the Lower Saxony State Museum Hannover as a loan issued the descendants Siegmund Seligmann's.