Hugo Simon 1 September 1880 – 1 July 1950) was a German Jewish banker, politician and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis. He was a former owner of

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

's famous painting, ''

The Scream ''The Scream'' is an art composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The Norwegian name of the piece is ('Screaming, Scream'), and the German title under which it was first exhibited is ' ('The Scream of Nature'). The agonize ...

''. After the November Revolution of 1918, he was briefly Minister of Finance in the Prussian Council of People's Representatives as a member of the

USPD The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of t ...

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...

dealt with this short time as a politician in his novel ''November 1918''.

Early life

Hugo Simon came from a Jewish family. His father was the teacher Victor Simon, his mother was Sophie Simon (née Jablonski). He grew up on his father's farm in Kahlstädt in the Kolmar district (Posen province) and completed an agricultural training course and an apprenticeship in a bank in Marburg. After his father's death and the sale of the property, Simon lived with his wife Gertrud and their daughters Anette and Ursula in Berlin-Zehlendorf. In 1911 Simon founded the private bank Carsch Simon & Co. together with Otto Carsch. In 1922 the partners separated and Simon founded the successor company Bett Simon & Co. together with Kasimir Bett and Kurt Gutmacher. Simon was chairman of the supervisory board of Allgemeine Häuserbau-AG from 1872 - Adolf Sommerfeld (Berlin), deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Cröllwitzer Actien-Papierfabrik (Halle ad Saale), member of the supervisory board of G. Feibisch AG (Berlin), steam brickworks Bergenhorst AG (Berlin), the Deutsche Grundkreditbank AG (Gotha-Berlin), R. Frister AG (Berlin-Oberschöneweide), Multiplex-Gasfernünder GmbH (Berlin), Terrain-AG Botanischer Garten - Zehlendorf West (Berlin), Thüringische Landeshypothekenbank AG (Weimar) and the Wurzen art mills and biscuit factories vorm. F. Krietsch (Wurzen) (all as of 1931). Simon was a well-known art lover, collector and patron. He was a member of the purchasing committee of the Nationalgalerie Berlin. He was a member of the supervisory board of

S. Fischer Verlag S. Fischer Verlag is a major German publishing house, which has operated as a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group since 1962. The publishing house was founded in 1881 by Samuel Fischer in Berlin, but is currently based in Frankfurt am Mai ...

and

Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and '' Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstei ...

and banker of the publisher Paul Cassirer. Politicians, artists, scientists and scholars met every week in his house. These included

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque (; ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German novelist. His landmark novel '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World War ...

Arnold Zweig Arnold Zweig (; 10 November 1887 – 26 November 1968) was a German writer, pacifist, and socialist. Early life and education Zweig was born in Glogau, Prussian Silesia (now Głogów, Poland), the son of Adolf Zweig, a Jewish shipping agent and ...

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; March 27, 1871 – March 11, 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German writer known for his sociopolitical novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...

Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig ( ; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world. Zweig was raised in V ...

and

Carl Zuckmayer Carl Zuckmayer (27 December 1896 – 18 January 1977) was a German writer and playwright. His older brother was the pedagogue, composer, conductor, and pianist Eduard Zuckmayer. His first two dramas were failures. In 1929, he wrote the script ...

, also visual artists such as Max Pechstein,

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

and

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

, also the actress

Tilla Durieux Tilla Durieux (born Ottilie Godeffroy; 18 August 1880 – 21 February 1971) was an Austrian theatre and film actress of the 20th century. Early years Born Ottilie Helene Angela Godeffroy on 18 August 1880 in Vienna, she was the daughter of the ...

, the publishers Samuel Fischer,

Ernst Rowohlt Ernst Hermann Heinrich Rowohlt (23 June 1887 in Bremen – 1 December 1960 in Hamburg) was a German publisher who founded the Rowohlt publishing house in 1908 and headed it in its repeated incarnations until his death. In 1912, he married actres ...

and the Ullstein brothers and politicians like the Prussian Prime Minister Otto Braun. In addition, Hugo Simon was friends among others. with

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian Marxism, Marxist theorist. A leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International, Kautsky advocated orthodox Marxism, a ...

and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

. The poet

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist ...

dedicated her poem Gott hör ... to “Hugo Simon dem Boas” in 1920. In 1921 Hugo Simon bought the former “

Schweizerhaus The Schweizerhaus (literally "Swiss house") is a Viennese restaurant, rich in tradition, that is inseparably linked with the Prater, a large public area and park in Leopoldstadt, the second district of Vienna, Austria's capital. Beer garden Th ...

” restaurant in

Seelow Seelow () is a German town, seat of the Märkisch-Oderland, a district of Brandenburg. As of 2013 its population was of 5,464. Geography It is situated in the extreme east of Germany, 70 km (40 miles) east of Berlin, 16 km (10 miles) we ...

(Brandenburg) and built a model farm there with cattle, poultry, fruit and vegetable cultivation. In 1923/24 he had a replica of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

's garden house built on the site in Weimar. The builder was the architect Ernst Rossius-Rhyn. There was also a small park with aviaries for different species of

parakeets A parakeet is any one of many small- to medium-sized species of parrot, in multiple genera, that generally has long tail feathers. Etymology and naming The name ''parakeet'' is derived from the French word ''perroquet'', which is reflect ...

and pheasants and a bird fountain designed by the ceramicist Emil Pottner. He was a member of the

Kaiser Wilhelm Society The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science () was a German scientific institution established in the German Empire in 1911. Its functions were taken over by the Max Planck Society. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was an umbrella organi ...

and worked among other things. together with

Erwin Baur Erwin Baur (16 April 1875, in Ichenheim, Grand Duchy of Baden – 2 December 1933) was a German geneticist and botanist. Baur worked primarily on plant genetics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research (then in Mü ...

, director at the institute for breeding run by the Kaiser Wilhelm Society ungsforschung in

Müncheberg Müncheberg is a small town in Märkisch-Oderland, in eastern Germany approximately halfway between Berlin and the border with Poland, within the historic region of Lubusz Land. Geography Prior to 2003 the area today covered by Müncheberg was or ...

Nazi persecution

Immediately after the

National Socialists Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

came to power in 1933, Hugo Simon and his wife fled to Paris via Switzerland. He founded a bank again, supported refugee aid and got involved politically, among other things. as a founding member of the pacifist organization Bund Neues Vaterland (later renamed Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte (German League for Human Rights)) . Shortly before the occupation of Paris by the Wehrmacht, he and his wife managed to escape to Marseille in June 1940. Finally, in February 1941, both were able to travel to Brazil via Spain and Portugal with Czech passports under the code names "Hubert Studenic" and "Garina Studenic". The couple initially lived in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, then moved to

Barbacena Barbacena is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As of 2020, the municipality had 138,204 inhabitants. The total area of the municipality is . Barbacena is known for its strong Italian influence. The Rodrigo Silva Colonial Nucl ...

, where Hugo Simon devoted himself to raising silkworms. He died in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

in 1950.

Art collection

Simon's extensive art collection was one of the most important in Berlin. Gathered between 1910 and 1933 it contained about 150 artworks. Nazi plunder, duress sales and flight as a refugee dispersed the collection. Artworks remaining in Germany were seized by the Nazis on 9 October 1933, with Simon's other property. Some of Simon's collection ended up in Switzerland in the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Kunstmuseum Basel.

's famous painting ''

'' ended up in Norway in the

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality in Akershus, Akershus county, Norway. It is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately southwest of Oslo. History The artcentre ...

Schweizerhaus

The Schweizerhaus was opened on 5 October 1933 by an order of the District President in Frankfurt a. d. Or (Rapporteur: Government Councilor Möbius) drafted. Nazis justified the confiscation claiming that Simon was finance minister of the “Marxist Prussian government” and a member of the USPD “ -The Schweizerhaus was taken over in 1936 by the state experimental institute in Landsberg / Warthe and continued as the “Staatliches Versuchsgut Oderbruch”. After the Second World War, the estate was first occupied by the Soviet Red Army and then, in 1950, taken over by the Association of Nationally Owned Enterprises and operated as VEB Gartenbau. After 1990 a community of heirs applied for restitution. In 2010 the city of Seelow bought the area and the Heimatverein “Schweizerhaus Seelow” e.V. renovated the building.

Nazi-looted art

Hugo Simon submitted restitution claims for art plundered by the Nazis starting in 1947. After his death, his heirs continued the process of trying to locate and recover artworks from his collection, notably Munch's ''

'' which Simon consigned to a Swiss gallery in 1937 as he fled the Nazis. In 2021, following the French government's restitution of Max Pechstein's ''Nus dans un paysage'' (1912), the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris held an exhibition in honor of Hugo Simon.

Autobiography

* Hugo Simon: ''Seidenraupen.'' (unveröffentlicht).

Literature

* Robert Volz: ''Reichshandbuch der deutschen Gesellschaft. Das Handbuch der Persönlichkeiten in Wort und Bild.'' Band 2: ''L–Z.'' Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, , S. 1787. * ''Dok. 118. Der Regierungspräsident in Frankfurt (Oder) rechtfertigt gegenüber dem preußischen Finanzminister am 26. Mai 1934 die Einziehung des Gutes von Hugo Simon.'' In: ''Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945.'' Band 1: ''1933–1937.'' Oldenbourg-Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, S. 339–341 (Leseprobe
books.google.de
– zur Enteignung des Schweizerhauses. * Marlen Eckl: ''„Das Paradies ist überall verloren“. Das Brasilienbild von Flüchtlingen des Nationalsozialismus.'' Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-86527-579-0. * *

Izabela Maria Furtado Kestler Izabela Maria Furtado Kestler (June 20, 1959 – June 1, 2009) was a Brazilian professor of German studies at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Patrik von zur Mühlen described her as the foremost specialist on German language writers ...

: ''Die Exilliteratur und das Exil der deutschsprachigen Schriftsteller und Publizisten in Brasilien.'' Frankfurt am Main 1992. * Edita Koch: ''Hugo Simon/Hubert Studenic.'' In: ''Exil.'' rankfurt, M. Band 3, 1983, 1, S. 50 f. . * Frithjof Trapp: ''Die Autobiographie des Bankiers und Politikers Hugo Simon: politische Reflexion im Medium des deutschen Realismus.'' In: ''Exil.'' rankfurt am Main Bd. 6 (1986), 2, S. 30–38, . * Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz – Zweiter Weltkrieg (Hrsg.): ''Fluchtgut – Raubgut. Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933–1945 und die Frage der Restitution.'' Zürich 2001. * Anna-Dorothea Ludewig,

Rafael Cardoso Rafael Cezar Cardoso (born 17 November 1985) is a Brazilian actor. Career He began his career in television, playing small parts on specials on RBS TV in Rio Grande do Sul. His first appearance on national television was in 2008, when he pla ...

(Hrsg.): ''Hugo Simon in Berlin. Handlungsorte und Denkräume.'' Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin / Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-274-6. * Nina Senger, Jan Maruhn: ''Hugo Simon. Bankier, Sammler, Sozialist.'' (Biographie) Mit einem Vorwort von Rafael Cardoso. Nimbus, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-03850-057-5. * Privatfilm für Hugo Simon (1924), Regie und Produktion: Gertrud David.

References

Links

* * Teilnachlass Hugo Simon im Deutschen Exilarchiv der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Hugo 1880 births 1950 deaths 20th-century German businesspeople Businesspeople from Berlin Businesspeople from Paris Businesspeople from Rio de Janeiro (city) Emigrants from Nazi Germany Finance ministers of Prussia Jewish art collectors German bankers German company founders German corporate directors German expatriates in Brazil German expatriates in France German patrons of the arts Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Jews and Judaism in Germany People from Barbacena People from the Province of Posen People from Steglitz-Zehlendorf People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919