Sigmund Wassermann

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Sigmund Wassermann (born October 16, 1889 in Bamberg , † February 28, 1958 in New York) was a German lawyer and banker.

Childhood and youth up to the First World War

Sigmund Wassermann was Emil Wassermann's youngest child. He attended the humanistic high school in Bamberg. He went to the Handelshochschule Berlin to study and did his doctorate at the University of Erlangen with the thesis "The history of the brand business in Germany" on October 22, 1912 as a Dr. phil. At the end of his studies he also had the academic degree of Dr. rer. pole. and Dr. jur. He completed his training at the banking house L. Behrens & Sons in Hamburg and at the Paris brokerage firm Alfred Gans & Co. He worked for a short time at Deutsche Bank in Constantinople in 1914/1915 ; whose later board spokesman (since 1923) was his brother Oscar .

Participation in the First World War

In 1915 Wassermann was drafted into the 24th Bavarian Infantry Regiment in Bamberg and promoted to lieutenant during the war . On September 19, 1917, he was awarded the "Decoration of Honor PEK II Class". His discharge took place on December 18, 1918 from the 5th Bavarian Infantry Regiment as a result of demobilization.

As later awards he received for his participation in the war on August 18, 1927 the possession certificate of the "Prince Alfons memorial sign" donated by His Royal Highness, Prince Alfons of Bavaria, and on April 23, 1935 the Cross of Honor for front-line soldiers due to the Ordinance of July 13, 1934 by Reich President General Field Marshal von Hindenburg in memory of the World War of 1914/18.

From the end of the First World War to forced emigration

On December 30, 1918, the move took place from Schützenstrasse. 21 in Bamberg to Berlin . There he took over the management of the Berlin branch of the bank Wassermann together with his cousin Max von Wassermann. Since 1919 he was a member of the “Central Committee of German Jews for Aid and Reconstruction”, an aid organization for Jewish emigrants from Russia. Since 1929 he was a member of the initiative committee for the expansion of the Jewish Agency . From 1924 to 1934 he lived in Tiergartenstrasse 8d with his brother Oscar and his family. He then moved to Rauchstrasse 14 and stayed in a preferred residential area in Berlin. Since 1930 he was a partner in the Wassermann banking house and a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany. From 1932 to 1933 he held the position of a member of the board of the Central Association of the German Banks and Bankers. Together with Max Warburg , Willy Dreyfus and Eugen Wednesday , he sat on the board of trustees of the Haffkine Foundation, which had taken on the supervisory tasks of the “central committee”. He left this position only after his own emigration.

From forced emigration to the end of life

Allegory of hearing / Woman Playing a Lute by Anna Rosina de Gasc, b. from Lisiewska

On January 21, 1939, he managed to escape to Holland. There he worked for a short time as a banker at NV Fidia Financieering en Discontering Maatschappij and Bankierskantoor Albert Graef NV He fled with a passport issued by the Berlin police chief and a residence permit until September 19, 1941. His place of refuge was Honthorstraat 52 in Amsterdam . On January 14, 1941, German authorities granted him permission to leave the United States. He came to the USA via Portugal in March 1941, where he lived in New York on 2nd East 86th Street and received US citizenship on May 5, 1947. In April 1941 he had to sell Anna Rosina de Gasc's painting An Allegory of Hearing (also known as "Woman playing a lute") to the art dealer P. de Boer through his lawyer CF van Veen for 1,000 guilders . The image was Commission restitution in 2008 after a decision by the Dutch to the heirs of Sigmund Wassermann returned . A membership certificate from the New York Fire Department dated December 7, 1942, and a “Certificate of Literacy” from the University of New York dated September 28, 1948. In 1946 he worked as an employee, later in a managerial position at "Eutectic Welding Alloys Corp." in Flushing / New York. He built the company together with his cousin René from Lausanne. His last job for a Jewish organization was that of Treasurer of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, an office he held until his death.

He remained unmarried. According to his self-disclosure in the compensation proceedings, his annual earnings at Bankhaus Wassermann were "never below RM 50,000, in most years significantly higher".

Sigmund Wassermann died in New York on February 28, 1958.

literature

  • Ferdinand von Weyhe: AE Wassermann. A legal historical case study on the "Aryanization" of two private banks. In: H.-J. Becker (ed.) U. a .: Legal history series. Vol. 343, Lang, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-55690-0 (also Diss. Regensburg 2006, pp. 48-50).
  • Diana-Elisabeth Fitz: From salt factor to banker. The Wassermann family, a reflection of an emancipatory naturalization process. Steinmeier, Nördlingen 1992, ISBN 3-927496-17-0 , pp. 103-106.
  • National Archives (Kingdom of the Netherlands), NBI 20736 (WE'3907)
  • Biographical handbook of German-speaking emigration after 1933. KG Saur, Munich / New York / London / Paris 1980, ISBN 3-598-10087-6 , p. 797 (with Werner Röder, Volume I: Politics, Economics, Public Life ) Google Books
  • Investigatory report on Wassermann (RC 1.86) - December 1, 2008, pp. 2-3.
  • Avraham Barkai : Oscar Wassermann and Deutsche Bank. Banker in a difficult time. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52958-5 .
  • Wassermann, Sigmund , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 379

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ferdinand von Weyhe: AE Wassermann. A legal historical case study on the "Aryanization" of two private banks. Regensburg 2006, pp. 48-50.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Diana-Elisabeth Fitz: From the salt factor to the banker. The Wassermann family, a reflection of an emancipatory naturalization process. Steinmeier, Nördlingen 1992, pp. 103-106.
  3. ↑ a b National Archives ( Kingdom of the Netherlands ) , NBI 20736 (WE'3907)
  4. ↑ a b Recommendation regarding Wassermann restitutiecommissie.nl, accessed on May 18, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Aquarius, Sigmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and banker
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1958
Place of death new York