Ludwig Katzenellenbogen (born 21 February 1877 in Krotoschin, German Empire; died 30 May 1944 in Berlin) was a German brewery director deported by the Nazis to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Life

His father

Adolph Katzenellenbogen Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name used in German-speaking countries, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Flanders, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and to a lesser extent in vari ...

(1834-1903) founded the alcohol distillery in what was then Krotoschin (now Krotoszyn).Genealogische Informationen im Artikel über Adolf Katzenellenbogen (1901–1963): In 1903, Ludwig became head of his father's business and founded the Spiritus headquarters in Berlin (later nationalized). At the end of 1924, a consortium under his leadership acquired a large block of shares in Mitteldeutsche Creditbank, in which his cousin Albert (1863-after 1933Genealogische Informationen im Artikel über Adolf Katzenellenbogen (1901–1963): ) sat on the board. After the death of Adolf Jarislowsky's son Alfred (1929), the way was clear for the merger with Commerzbank. He became general manager of the Ostwerke-Schultheiß-Patzenhofer brewery in Berlin. Ostwerke was a group of spirit, cement, yeast, glass and machine factories and ran into difficulties after the takeover of Schultheiß-Patzenhofer-Brauerei and as a result of the economic crisis at the end of the 1920s. Until 1930 he was married to Estella Marcuse (1886-1991), the daughter of a physician. Their children were the political scientist

Konrad Kellen Konrad Kellen (born ''Konrad Moritz Adolf Katzenellenbogen''; December 14, 1913 – April 8, 2007) was a German-born American political scientist, intelligence analyst and author. At different points in his career, Kellen analyzed postwar German s ...

(1913-2007) and younger sisters Estella and Leonie. They lived in the Freienhagen manor house outside Liebenwalde north of Berlin In 1930 Katzenellenbogen married the actress Tilla Durieux and helped her to finance the Piscatorbühne (Piscator Theatre) at Berlin’s Nollendorfplatz.

Art collection

Katzenellenbogen has an important art collection which included "Rehe" Dammwild Roes, "Bacchant“ by Lovis Corinth, a self portrait by Oskar Kokoschka, "Chemin de Plaine avec une porte de jardin a droite" by Pissarro, as well as many other works.

Nazi persecution

When the Nazis came to power, the couple fled with two suitcases and 200 marks. In 1933 he fled with Tilla Durieux first to Ascona in Switzerland and emigrated from there in 1935 to Zagreb (Kingdom of Yugoslavia), where a distant relative of his wife lived. While she was trying to obtain a visa in Belgrade for both of them to emigrate to the USA, she was surprised by the German bombing and raid on Belgrade in April 1941 and was thus separated from her husband.. Katzenellenbogen was arrested by the Gestapo in Saloniki in 1941 and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin. He died in 1944 in the Jewish Hospital Berlin.

Postwar search for Nazi-looted art

The heirs of Ludwig and Estella Katzenellenbogen have listed fifty artworks with the German Lost Art Foundation.

Commemoration

In Liebenwalde, commemorative stumbling blocks were laid for Ludwig Katzenellenbogen and other family members by the artist

Gunter Demnig Gunter Demnig (born 27 October 1947 in Berlin) is a German artist. He is best known for his ''Stolperstein'' ("stumbling block") memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution, including Jews, homosexuals, Romani and the disabled. The project plac ...

Literature

* Joseph Walk (Hrsg.): ''Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden 1918–1945.'' Hrsg. vom Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, München 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4. * Tilla Durieux: ''Meine ersten neunzig Jahre.'' Herbig, München 1971 (dort meist L. K. genannt) * ''Katzenellenbogen, Ludwig'', in: Werner Röder,

Herbert A. Strauss Herbert Arthur Strauss (1 June 1918, Würzburg, Germany – 11 March 2005, New York, NY) was a German-born American historian. Life Strauss spent his youth in his home town of Würzburg, Bavaria. After school he began a commercial apprenticeshi ...

(Hrsg.): ''Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933. Band 1: Politik, Wirtschaft, Öffentliches Leben''. München : Saur, 1980, S. 354

References

External links

Ludwig Katzenellenbogen - Odysseus in Freienhagen
von Hermann Aurich. (Kurze Biographie) * Zeitungsartikel über Ludwig Katzenellenbogen in der Pressemappe 20. Jahrhundert der ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. {{DEFAULTSORT:Katzenellenbogen, Ludwig 1877 births 1944 deaths Emigrants from Nazi Germany Businesspeople from Berlin 20th-century businesspeople German Jews who died in the Holocaust Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners