Oscar Wassermann

Oscar Wassermann (born April 4 1869 in Bamberg; died September 8 1934 in Garmisch) was a German banker.

Oscar Wassermann, 1929 (photography by German Bundesarchiv)

Life

Wassermann's grandfather Samuel Wassermann came to Bamberg from Regensburg and opened a bank, A. E. Wassermann, which his son Emil (1842–1911) and brother Angelo ran after his death. Emil Wassermann married Emma Oppenheimer in Frankfurt am Main. Their son Oscar was the oldest of ten children; his youngest brother was German banker Sigmund Wassermann.[1]

After working in Munich and Paris, he and his cousin Max Wassermann took over the family bank in 1900. He became a member of the Jewish organisation Gesellschaft der Freunde in 1898, later serving as president in Berlin from 1924 to 1934. In 1912 Wassermann also began working for Deutsche Bank in Berlin, together with banker Paul Mankiewitz. After the end of World War I, Wassermann and banker Max Warburg helped the new German democratic government by financing war reparations. From 1923 to 1933 Wassermann served as Deutsche Bank CEO,[2] succeeded by banker Georg Solmssen. In 1929, he was a leading figure in the fusion of Deutsche Bank with Berlin's Disconto-Gesellschaft.[3]

Oscar Wassermann was married and had two daughters, Karin Wassermann and Hedwig Wassermann. The family lived at Tiergartenstraße 8d in Berlin-Mitte from 1925 to 1933.[4] After his death in 1934, his wife and children used the auctionhouses of Alfred Berkhahn and Paul Graupe to sell some of the paintings in his private collection.[5]

O Casamento Desigual by Quentin Metsys[6]

References
  1. Biography at website of Historische Gesellschaft der Deutschen Bank e.V.
  2. Biography at website of Historische Gesellschaft der Deutschen Bank e.V.
  3. Frankfruter Rundschau.de: Interview zum 150. Jubiläum der Deutschen Bank mit Historiker Alexander Nützenadel, March 10, 2020
  4. Berliner Adreßbücher 1925–1933.
  5. "Lost Art Internet Database - Einfache Suche". 2016-03-05. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05.
  6. "Família judia tenta reaver pintura que faz parte do acervo do Masp". O Globo. 2014-03-13.

Literature
  • Avraham Barkai: Oscar Wassermann und die Deutsche Bank. Bankier in schwieriger Zeit. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-52958-0.
  • Joseph Walk (ed.): Biography of Wasserman in: Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden 1918–1945. Munich : Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4, p. 379
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