Dr. Paul Philipp Homberger (1882-1965) was a German Jewish lawyer, banker and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis

Paul Homberger
Born1882
Karlsruhe
Died1965
New York
OccupationArt collector

Family and professional life edit

The Homburger family was one of the oldest Jewish families in Karlsruhe. The first ancestor of the bank's founder, who was allowed to settle in Karlsruhe in 1722, was Löw from Homburg am Main, called Löw Homburger. Veit Löw Homburger (1810-1878) founded the Bankhaus Veit L. Homburger in 1854 when he separated from his two brothers, with whom he ran his father's banking and exchange business. The two brothers each founded their own banks. From 1899 to 1901, the architects Curjel & Moser built a new building for the bank Veit L. Homburger at Karlstraße 9–11 on the corner of Akademiestraße, which is now a listed building. The building decoration was created by the sculptor Oskar Kiefer.[1]

Homburger was the executor of the will of Bertha Pappenheim, a patient of Sigmund Freud known as the famous "Anna O.[2][3]

Nazi persecution and emigration edit

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Homberger was persecuted because of his Jewish heritage. Nazi incited boycotts led to the Aryanization of his family's bank,[4] the seizure of his property and his flight to the United States.[5]

Death and legacy edit

Homberger died in New York in 1965.[6]

In 2012 the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe restituted the painting "Portrait of an Ancestor" to the descendants of Dr. Paul Philipp Homburger (1882-1965). The painting was seized in July 1939 by the Nazi run Foreign Exchange Office of the Baden Regional Finance Office in Karlsruhe.[7][8]

The Homberger bank is on the German heritage monuments list.[9]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Bankhaus Veit Löw Homburger. In: Datenbank der Kulturdenkmale. Stadt Karlsruhe, retrieved 5 September 2022.
  2. ^ Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel (2011). Les Patients de Freud. Destins. Éditions Sciences Humaines.
  3. ^ "Bertha Pappenheim (1859-1936) | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com. Retrieved 2023-11-02. In 1953, Ernest Jones revealed the identity of "Anna O." in the first volume of his Freud biography, adding for good measure the story of Bertha Pappenheim's alleged hysterical pregnancy, which Freud had told him. Bertha Pappenheim's relatives were shocked. On June 20, 1954, Aufbau, the newspaper of the German-speaking immigrants in New York, published a letter from Paul Homburger, Bertha Pappenheim's executor
  4. ^ "In re Holocaust Victim Assets LitigationCase No. CV96-4849Certified Award to Claimant [REDACTED]in re Account of Veit L. HomburgerClaim Number: 224038/CH" (PDF). Claims Resolution Trust.
  5. ^ "Auch bei Karlsruher Familien schlummert noch NS-Raubgut". Badische Neueste Nachrichten (in German). 2023-01-27. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  6. ^ "Homburger, Paul Philipp". De Gruyter. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  7. ^ "Provenienzforscherin klärt Herkunft auf". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  8. ^ "Aktuelle Nachrichten aus der Landeskunde". www.zum.de. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  9. ^ "Akademiestr. 36, Karlstr. 11 (Flst. 331)". web1.karlsruhe.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-11-02.