Valentin Weisbach

Valentin Weisbach (born March 11, 1843 in Berlin ; † October 23, 1899 ) was a German banker , art patron and social reformer in Berlin.

Life

Weisbach was a banker and bill broker, fund and money broker and joined the Society of Friends in 1879 . In 1888 he became the first chairman of the Association for the Improvement of Small Apartments in Berlin, which he co-founded (formerly the Central Association for the Welfare of the Working Class ), which worked as part of the reform program to improve workers' housing. The architect Alfred Messel had been the association's deputy chairman since 1888, and the businessman Emil Minlos became an honorary director. Weisbach lived in one of the villas built by Alfred Messel at Tiergartenstrasse 4.

As a patron , Weisbach made it possible for the Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig to acquire the collection of Cypriot antiquities from Max Ohnefalsch-Richter , which was shown at the Berlin industrial exhibition in 1896 . The collection came to Leipzig in 1898, where it was kept in the Museum of Ethnology until 1974. Then she came (until 1991) to the Museum for German History , East Berlin . Today the collection is in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin .

As a member of the Ethnological Aid Committee in Berlin, Weisbach organized loans for the Royal Museum of Ethnology Berlin (→ Ethnological Museum ), which enabled the museum to acquire a valuable commemorative head of a Queen Mother and other objects from the Kingdom of Benin at an auction by the art dealer and in 1899 Auction house operator JC Stevens in London .

Volker Viergutz: Valentin Weisbach (1843–1899) - banker, stockbroker and benefactor. Marie Hoffmann's memories of her father with additional notes. P. 39–80: in Berlin in the past and present, yearbook of the Landesarchiv Berlin, ed. Klaus Dettmar, 2004.
Melitta Brönner: Exhibition and sale of Cypriot antiquities at the Berlin trade exhibition in 1896. The history of the “Ohnefalsch-Richter / Weisbach” collection (pp. 107–123) in: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica, 31, 1999, contributions to the holdings of the Berliners - and early historical collections, Ed. Wilfried Menghin. ( Summary of the article )

Archive material in the Ethnological Museum Berlin: Directory of members of the Ethnological Aid Committee, File I B Litt. W. Jacobsen, Vol. II.

personal data
SURNAME	Weisbach, Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German banker and social reformer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 11, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	October 23, 1899