Aron Hirsch (6 February 1858 – 22 February 1942) was a German metal trader.

Biography

Hirsch was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on 6 February 1858 in

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bombi ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 1877, he joined the family business, metal trading company ''Aron Hirsch & Sohn'', founded by the grandfather Aron Hirsch (1783–1842), in Halberstadt. In 1898, he moved to Berlin to take over the management of the Eberswalder Messingwerk after the death of his uncle Gustav Hirsch. In 1906 he joined the :de:Gesellschaft der Freunde (Society of Friends). In 1907, ''Aron Hirsch & Sohn'' discontinued its industrial activities and incorporated them into the newly founded company Hirsch Kupfer- und Messingwerke AG (HKM), Berlin, which went public in 1909 where he served as chairman of the board and shareholder. He became a member of the management board of the

Berlin Stock Exchange Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

and served on numerous supervisory boards, including

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, HKM profited due to German armaments orders but simultaneously lost money as their overseas raw material base was expropriated by Germany's war opponents. In 1929, the

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

(ICI) took over the firm's industrial activities and the trading house was subsumed by Handelshaus H. Schoyer. Hirsch was involved in the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (the Academy for the Science of Judaism) and in the Berlin Jewish community. In 1922 he received an honorary doctorate from the Technische Universität Darmstadt. He was married to Amalie "Mally" Hirsch (b. Mainz d. 1865 in Frankfurt); they had two children: Siegmund Hirsch (1885–1981) and Dora "Dodo" Hirsch Schwartz (d. 1893). In 1932, Hirsch retired to Wiesbaden with his wife and initially lived in the

Hotel Nassauer Hof Nassauer Hof is a luxury five-star superior hotel in Wiesbaden, Germany, and member of the international association The Leading Hotels of the World as well as the German association ''Selektion Deutscher Luxushotels'' . The property was built in ...

. Due to the increasing persecution after the rise of the National Socialists and their

seizure of power An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...

in 1933, the couple was forced to continuously relocate. Aron Hirsch died on 22 February 1942, in Wiesbaden; his wife Amalie committed suicide on 27 August 1942, shortly after it was announced that she would be deported to the

Theresienstadt concentration camp Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

References

* Friedrich von Borries/ Jens-Uwe Fischer: ''Heimatcontainer. Deutsche Fertighäuser in Israel.'' Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp, 2009. * Anett Krause, Cordula Reuß rsg. ''NS-Raubgut in der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig : atalog zur Ausstellung in der Bibliotheca Albertina, 27. November 2011 bis 18. März 2012'. Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Schriften aus der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig ; 25 , 2011 , S. 63ff * Joseph Walk (Hrsg.), ''Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden 1918–1945''. hrsg. vom Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. München : Saur, 1988 . * Walter Tetzlaff, ''2000 Kurzbiographien bedeutender deutscher Juden des 20. Jahrhunderts'', Askania-Verlag, Lindhorst 1982, * Ernst G. Lowenthal: ''Juden in Preussen'', Berlin : Reimer , 1982 * Salomon Wininger: ''Große jüdische National-Biographie''. Kraus Reprint, Nendeln 1979, (Nachdr. d. Ausg. Czernowitz 1925). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Aron German industrialists 19th-century German Jews 1858 births 1942 deaths German businesspeople in metals German commodities traders