Simon Hirschland Bank
| Simon Hirschland Bank
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Private bank |
| founding | 1841 |
| resolution | 1938 |
| Reason for dissolution | "Aryanization" |
| Seat | Essen , Germany |
| management |
Simon Hirschland (1841–1885) Isaac Hirschland (1885–1912) Georg and Kurt Hirschland (1912–1938) |
| Number of employees | last over 160 |
| sales | Balance sheet total: 84 million RM (1937) |
| Branch | Bank |
The Simon Hirschland Bank was founded in Essen in 1841 by the German-Jewish banker Simon Hirschland . It was considered to be the financier of the booming hard coal mining industry from the time of early industrialization in Essen and the surrounding area. In doing so, it developed into Germany's largest private bank. After the forced liquidation and flight of the Hirschland family during the National Socialist era , the business was taken over by the Burkhardt & Co. bank (today HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt ).
Foundation and advancement
Simon Hirschland opened his trading and banking business in Essen in 1841. The trading business, which had remained rather insignificant, slowly ended around 1850. The banking business rose in return at the time of early industrialization in Essen steadily since the coal industry was booming and Alfred Krupp and his cast steel factory greatly expanded. The loan and exchange business was an important part. The total amount of all bills rose from almost 10,000 thalers in 1843 to 391,000 thalers in 1868. Customers in the exchange and loan business included the region's business magnates: Alfred Krupp, Johann Dinnendahl , Wilhelm Theodor Grillo , Mathias Stinnes and Franz Haniel .
Simon Hirschland's second son, Isaac Hirschland , took over the private bank after his father's death in 1885 and continued to run it successfully. The capital requirements of the steel and mining industry increased significantly.
After Isaac Hirschland's death in 1912, his sons Georg and Kurt Hirschland became the owners of the Simon-Hirschland-Bank and expanded the business internationally. For example, there were loan and issuing transactions with the heavy industry companies Krupp, Thyssen , Henschel , Mannesmannröhren-Werke and Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG . In the 1920s, Georg Simon Hirschland founded a branch in Hamburg . The two sons of Isaac's eldest daughter Agathe also got into the business.
Forced sale in the time of National Socialism
In 1935 the Hirschland partners saw the need to protect the private bank from the anti-Jewish discrimination of the National Socialists . So they offered Hermann Josef Abs and Gotthard von Falkenhausen from Deutsche Bank AG a partnership. The preliminary talks, which had initially been broken off, were resumed in 1937. In an internal Gestapo report , the Simon-Hirschland-Bank was defamed as the “center of Jewish financial rule” in the Ruhr area. In addition, illegal machinations in the management lead to Georg Hirschland calling the Reichsbank and the banking commissioner. Both authorities countered Hirschland, however, that the Jewish owners would have to decide for themselves about their consequences of the political situation.
At the beginning of 1938 the Hirschland family decided to sell the bank. Early offers from interested banks, such as the Dresdner Bank , the Westfalenbank and the Nationalbank , were rejected by the authorities because they were of the opinion that the Hirschland bank could be maintained as an independent company due to its extensive foreign exchange creditors and the resulting economic interest. In April 1938, the Hirschland family initiated negotiations with Gotthard von Falkenhausen and the board member of Deutsche Bank AG, Karl Kimmich , in order to convert the Hirschlandbank into an “Aryan” limited partnership . A transition plan was presented on June 30, 1938 and approved by the Reichsbank and the Reich Commissioner. Von Falkenhausen and Otto Burkhardt, previously board members of a textile company, were designated as personally liable partners. So was renamed the new company as Burkhardt & Co.
After the approval of the Reich Commissioner for Credit, granted on September 1, 1938, the forced Aryanization followed, so that the Hirschland family suffered great losses. Most recently more than 160 employees worked here, including 36 “non-Aryans” who were laid off. The business was transferred to the bank Burkhardt & Co. , which later became part of the HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt company . Deutsche Bank AG, which did not act as a direct purchaser, played a key role in this supposedly “voluntary abandonment” and the “friendly Aryanization”.
Exposed to persecution by the National Socialists, the Hirschland family fled to the USA and Kurt Hirschland to Switzerland . After the Second World War she got part of her fortune back. In 1985, in memory of the family, Wiener Platz in Essen, which was located near the company's former headquarters, was renamed Hirschlandplatz.
Bank building
The Simon Hirschland Bank building, erected in 1910/1911, is located in what is known as the banking district in Essen city center . It was built as a “representative palace ” according to plans by the Cologne architect Carl Moritz .
architecture
The building fronts on the streets of An der Reichsbank and Lindenallee have been a listed building since 1998 . The scope of protection is limited to the street-side facades with a corresponding roof area. The interior of the building was gutted for conversion .
- Facade on Lindenallee
The front facade is clad with ashlar and divided into seven axes by fluted pilasters . The three-storey building with a mansard roof rests on a basement level with cornices. The window walls on the top floor are decorated and profiled. The door area in the central axis of the facade is flanked by columns. The pillars support a balcony .
- Facade at the Reichsbank
The two-storey façade on An der Reichsbank has been moved forward, with a balcony above it. The facade is clad with ashlar and divided into six axes by fluted pilasters. A loggia on the first floor is three axes wide and is divided by two pairs of columns.
A more recent extension is seven axles wide.
Todays use
At the end of the 1990s, the building was gutted and the facades rebuilt. The listed facade of the former Simon-Hirschland-Bank was renovated in 2000. Since 2001, the extension of the Galeria Kaufhof department store has been located behind the historic facade , and it is owned today.
literature
- Hans Jaeger: Hirschland, Simon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 229 ( digitized version ).
- Hermann Schroeter: History and Fate of Essen Jews. The Hirschland family from Essen . Essen 1980, p. 174 f .
- W. Wißkirchen: Burkhardt & Co., private bankers in the heart of the Ruhr area. In: Journal for Company History and Entrepreneur Biography, 1957, p. #.
Web links
- Former banking house Simon Hirschland in the monuments list of the city of Essen ; accessed on March 18, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Ingo Köhler: The "Aryanization" of private banks in the Third Reich. Repression, elimination and the question of reparation. (= Series of publications for the journal for corporate history. ) 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 9783406532009 .
- ↑ a b Data on the person and family in the Euregio family book
- ↑ Banking district on hv-essen.de
- ↑ Hirschlandbank. In: Holger Krüssmann, Tobias Appelt: On blue stones. Architecture and art on the Essen culture trail. Essen 2010, page 52 f.
- ↑ Historical city tour. From the private bank to the Kaufhof. on derwesten.de from June 16, 2013.
- ^ Galeria Kaufhof Essen, extension (formerly: Bankhaus Simon Hirschland) ; Entry in online database ruhr-bauten.de, accessed on April 17, 2015
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 10 " N , 7 ° 0 ′ 40.9" E