Stephen M. Kellen

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Stephen M. Kellen (born April 21, 1914 in Berlin , † February 11, 2004 in New York City ; full name Stephen Max Kellen , last name originally Katzenellenbogen ) was an American banker and patron who had emigrated from Germany .

Life

Kellen graduated from the French grammar school with the Abitur . He then completed a banking apprenticeship. Because of his Jewish faith , Kellen was forced to leave Germany in 1936. He emigrated via London to New York City in the USA. There he anglicized his original surname Katzenellenbogen to Kellen . In New York he married Anna-Maria Arnhold , daughter of the banker Hans Arnhold . She had also fled from Germany to the USA; Stephen M. Kellen already knew her from Berlin. From 1940 Kellen worked at the bank Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder , from 1955 to 1994 he was its president.

Despite his expulsion from Germany, Kellen turned his life to his hometown Berlin. As early as 1946, he traveled to Berlin for the first time after the Second World War to find out how to support the reconstruction. He also organized the first post-war loans for German companies like Siemens or Hoechst to get the economy going again.

Kellen was an art patron and sponsored cultural and scientific institutions and events. Here, too, he often linked his old and new home. For example, he sponsored guest performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker at Carnegie Hall or financed the restoration of the Heinrich Heine monument in New York, which was created by Ernst Herter in Berlin .

In March 1998, Kellen donated three million dollars for the construction of the American Academy in Berlin , which in the former family home of his wife in Berlin-Wannsee resides.

Honors

In 1991 Stephen M. Kellen received the Great Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In the USA, Stephen M. and Anna-Maria Kellen received the New York Order Spirit of the City in 1997 for their charitable work .

On May 6, 2002 Stephen M. Kellen received the Ernst Reuter plaque for his special services to the city of Berlin.

In 2004, Kellen was finally honored with the French order Chevalier de la Legion d´Honneur .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Page no longer available , search in web archives: Henry W. Sapparth: A high standard was his yardstick / In memory of Stephen M. Kellen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Communications from the Walther Rathenau Society, No. 14, July 2004, pp. 30–32.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.walther-rathenau.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.walther-rathenau.de  
  2. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: American Academy donor has died . Berliner Morgenpost, February 15, 2004.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / mobil.morgenpost.de
  3. ↑ Wowereit hands over Ernst Reuter badge to Stephen M. Kellen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Press release of the State of Berlin from May 3, 2002.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berlin.de  
personal data
SURNAME Kellen, Stephen M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Katzenellenbogen, Stephen Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American banker
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 2004
Place of death New York City