Lion Philips (29 October 1794 – 28 December 1866) was a Dutch
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
merchant. He is the grandfather of
Gerard
Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other Germanic name, early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful ...
and
Anton Philips
Anton Frederik Philips (14 March 1874 – 7 October 1951) co-founded Royal Philips Electronics N.V. in 1912 with his older brother Gerard Philips in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His father and Gerard had founded the Philips Company in 1891 as a fami ...
of
Philips Electronics
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
, and was a financial supporter of
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
.
Early life and family

Lion Philips was born in
Zaltbommel
Zaltbommel (), also known, historically and colloquially, as Bommel, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands.
History
The city of Zaltbommel
The town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as "Bomela" in the year 850. Zaltbommel received ...
, Netherlands. His parents were Benjamin Philips and Lea Hartog, who moved there from
Veenendaal
Veenendaal () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in central Netherlands, located in the province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. Veenendaal is the only population centre within its administrative borders. The municipal ...
. He was the eldest of nine children; seven boys and two girls. Among his siblings, only he chose to stay in Zaltbommel; the others spread across the world to benefit their business.
Lion married Sophie Pressburg from
Nijmegen
Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...
. Sophie's sister
Henriëtte married German lawyer Heinrich Marx and was the mother of
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
. Sophie and Lion had nine children, including August Philips, who was a lawyer and dean of the Amsterdam Bar Association; and banker Frederik Philips who, together with his son
Gerard Philips
Gerard Leonard Frederik Philips (9 October 1858 – 26 January 1942) was a Dutch industrialist and co-founder, with his father Frederik Philips, of Philips as a family business in 1891. In 1912, Gerard and his younger brother Anton Philips conv ...
, established the
Philips Electronics
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
Company, the first Dutch
incandescent light
An incandescent light bulb, also known as an incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, is an electric light that produces illumination by Joule heating a #Filament, filament until it incandescence, glows. The filament is enclosed in a ...
company, in 1891. Gerard's younger brother
Anton
Anton may refer to: People
*Anton (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Anton (surname), a list of people with the surname
Places
*Anton Municipality, Bulgaria
**Anton, Sofia Province, a village
*Antón District, Panama
**Antón, ...
joined the company in 1912.
Career
In 1815, Lion and a partner, Gerlacus Ribbius Peletier, started a tobacco company, "The Unicorn". The successors of this company remained active in the tobacco trade until the second half of the twentieth century. In addition to trading tobacco, the Philips pursued other businesses, including a blanket factory, which later burned down. At the time of his death in 1866, his capital was estimated at around NLG 189,000.
[
]
Religion
The Philips family was of Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
origin. Lion Philips and his father Benjamin joined the Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...
on 1 February 1826 with their respective families. Full Jewish emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It included efforts withi ...
had been in place in the Netherlands since 1796, eliminating trade and other obstacles to the faith.
Karl Marx
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and Philips had a close relationship; Marx regularly stayed with the Philips family in Nijmegen and later in Zaltbommel. Seven letters to Marx and seven to Philips are known. These letters cover issues ranging from the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
to the discovery of electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
. One of the main reasons for the strong involvement was money. Philips was Marx's main sponsor and the business mediator between him and Henriëtte Pressburg. This was necessary, because the relationship between Marx and his mother was poor, Marx writing: "I have fallen out with my family and, as long as my mother lives, I have no right to my inheritance". As a result, Philips granted Marx allowances, first from the legacy of Heinrich Marx, then as advances on the legacy of Henriëtte.
After Henriëtte's death in 1863, Lion, who was named one of her executors, paid what remained after Karl's inheritance: seven thousand guilders, a considerable sum. In addition, Philips occasionally offered extras, after a lot of flattery: "I squeezed £160 out of my uncle so that we were able to pay off the greater part of our debts", Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels on 7 May 1861.[MECW, Collected Works, Vol. 41, Marx and Engels Letters 1860-1864, Marx to Engels in Manchester, 7 May 1861, International Publishers 1985, p. 279.]
Marx found "a hospitable home" with Lion Philips and his family. In addition, he was able to "conduct intellectual discussions with open-minded, liberal ubiquists".
Cultural reference
In the Soviet TV series ''Karl Marks, Molodye gody'' (, "Karl Marx's early years") the role of Lion Philips is played by the Soviet actor Leonid Bronevoy
Leonid Sergeyevich Bronevoy (December 17, 1928December 9, 2017, born Leonid Solomonovich Bronevoy) was a Soviet and Russian actor. Though primarily a stage actor in the Lenkom Theatre, Bronevoy also made occasional appearances in films. He was ...
.
Bibliography
* A. Heerding The history of N.V. Philips' gloeilampenfabrieken Volume 1 The origin of the Dutch incandescent lamp industry translated by Derek Jordon
* A. Heerding The history of N.V. Philips' gloeilampenfabrieken Volume 2: A company of many parts translated by Derek Jordon
* I.J. Blanken The history of N.V. Philips' gloeilampenfabrieken The development of N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken into a major electrical group Volume 3 translated by C. Pettiward
* I.J. Blanken The history of N.V. Philips' gloeilampenfabrieken Under German rule Volume 4 translated by C. Pettiward
* Werner Blumenberg : ''"Ein unbekanntes Kapitel aus Marx 'Leben. Briefe an die holländischen Verwandten'' . In: International Review of Social History, 1, 1956, No. 1, S. 54-111
* ''The Netherlands Patriciaat'' . Bd. 50, The Hague 1964, S. 330-343
* Heinz Monz: ''Der Erbteilungsvertraag Henriette Marx'' . In: De Antiquaar, Hilversum 1971, II. Jg., S. 6 ff
* Heinz Monz: ''Karl Marx. Ground layers zu Leben und Werk'' . NCO-Verlag, Trier 1973
* Manfred Schöncke: ''Karl and Heinrich Marx and ihre Geschwister'' . Köln 1993
* Jan Gielkens: " ''If only I were in Bommel again": Karl Marx and his Dutch relatives: a family history in documents / delivered and collected.'' . Amsterdam 1997
* Jan Gielkens: ''Karl Marx und seine niederländischen Verwandten. Eine kommentierte Quellenedition'' . Trier 1999 ielmehr April 2000(= Scriptures from the Karl-Marx-Haus 50)
* Izumi Omura ua (Hrsg.): Marx privat family - Die Foto- und Fragebogen-Alben von Marx 'Laura and Jenny - Eine kommentierte Faksimileausgabe. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philips, Lion
1794 births
1866 deaths
People from Zaltbommel
19th-century Dutch businesspeople
Dutch Jews
Karl Marx
Converts to Calvinism from Judaism