Max Meirowsky (born 17 February 1866 in Guttstadt; died 1 December 1949 in Geneva) was a German-Jewish industrialist and art collector persecuted by the Nazis.

Life

Max Meirowsky, the older brother of the dermatologist Emil Meirowsky (1876-1940), came to Cologne from East Prussia. In 1894 he founded a company near Porz to produce insulating material (mica, monazite and feldspar) for the emerging electrical and motor industries. The company flourished, and in 1910 was transformed into a family corporation, Meirowsky AG, in which Max's brother Emil also participated. He lived in

Lindenthal, Cologne Lindenthal ( , ) is a borough of the City of Cologne in Germany. It includes the quarters Braunsfeld, Junkersdorf, Klettenberg, Lindenthal, Lövenich, Müngersdorf, Sülz, Weiden and Widdersdorf. It has about 153,000 inhabitants (as of Decem ...

, in a house constructed by architect Ludwig Bopp in 1910-11. In 1917 Meirowsky anonymously donated 1.2 million gold marks to the city of Cologne, in the hope of advancing research into improving children's nutrition, however the mayor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...

wanted to use the money to "attract a KWI to his city". Meirowsky raised the donation to three million gold market in 1919, but war, inflation and other problems hampered plans. He married Amélie Paula Feldsieger, née Felsch. They divorced on October 28, 1938.

Art Collector

Meirowsky's art collection included works by

van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). Hi ...

and Hodler. He had a fine collection of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, including Van Gogh’s "Portrait of Camille Roulin" (1888) (now in the Museo de Arte, São Paulo). In 1913 he purchased Van Gogh's Wheatstacks, a painting that would pass through many hands, including another Jewish art collector, Alexandrine de Rothschild (1884-1965), before suddenly resurfacing at

Christie’s Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

New York "following complex behind-the-scenes deal" in 2021. In 1912 Meirowsky was honored, along with others, for his promotion of the Sonderbund International Art Exhibition in Cologne In 1929, Meirowsky contributed art works to another exhibition organized by

Alfred Flechtheim Alfred Flechtheim (1 April 1878 – 9 March 1937) was a German Jewish art dealer, art collector, journalist and publisher persecuted by the Nazis. Early years Flechtheim was born into a Jewish merchant family; his father, Emil Flechtheim, was a g ...

Nazi persecution, loss and exile

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Max's brother Emil, who had become a professor of dermatology at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

in 1921, was fired from his position at the university because Jewish. Like other Jewish doctors, his licence to practice medicine was revoked, because he was Jewish, in 1936. In 1939 Emil escaped to the United States via England. However Emil's daughter, Lisamaria (1904-1942) who had graduated with a double doctorate in medicine, did not escape. Despite efforts to convert to Christianity, she was deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

and murdered because of her Jewish origins. "Apart from her dissertation there are no other traces of her existence". In 1938 Max's company, Meirowsky AG, was Aryanized by the Nazis. His property Waldstraße 22/28 in Berlin-Reinickendorf was subject to a forced sale to Norddeutsche Dornier-Werke Wismar in 1938. To finance his flight, he was forced to sell his art collection at a "Jewish auction" on November 18, 1938, at the Berlin auction house H. W. Lange. A version of

Ferdinand Hodler Ferdinand Hodler (March 14, 1853 – May 19, 1918) was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century. His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of ...

's ''Lied aus der Ferne'' from 1914 was also sold for 2800 Reichsmark. The Aryanized company, now with no Jewish owners, became Dielektra AG in 1941. Sold in 1982 it joined the

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

group in 1990. Until January 2006 Dielekra AG operated as a limited liability company (GmbH). Some of the paintings that were once in Max Meirowsky's art collection can be seen in Brigitte Monti's ''Max Meirowsky: Industriel, Collectionneur, Emigrant'' pages 65–81. In November 2021, a

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...

painting that had belonged to Meirowsky, ''Meules de blé'' (1888), sold for $35 million at a Christies' auction after a three party restitution agreement involving the heirs of Max Meirowsky, Alexandrine de Rothschild, and representatives for Cox’s estate.

Literature

* Lothar Jaenicke und Frieder W. Lichtenthaler: ''Ein Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Köln : Emil Fischer, Konrad Adenauer und die Meirowsky-Stiftung'', in: Angewandte Chemie, Volume 115, Issue 7, 17. Februar 2003, S. 746–750.

References

External links