Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Hugo Simon (art collector)" in English language version.
Banker, social-democrat activist, pacifist, Maecenas, founder of a silkworm farm.His and Stefan Zweig's paths crossed five times: in the group around the businessman-philosopher-statesman Walther Rathenau; after the Great War in the Weimar Republic; in Paris, in the circle of German émigrés after the Nazis came to power; in 1940, in Brazil, when they stayed in the same hotel on Flamengo beach; and in early 1942 in Barbacena, during a meeting with another refugee writer, the Frenchman George Bernanos.
ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955) Two t.l.s. to Hugo Simon [? in Berlin], both dated The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 3 June 1946, ½ page 4to. The first letter, in German, remarks on the condition of Berlin: 'Eine solche Zukunft hätten wir uns doch damals in Berlin nicht in den düstersten Träumen ausgemalt.' Einstein is happy that Hugo and his wife are in safety, and adds that he will enclose a letter to rectify the problem of his assumed identity ('Es muss curios sein, als ein Fremder in der eigenen Haut herumzulaufen und ich will gerne im beiliegunden Schreiben dazu beitragen, dass dieser Zustand rectifiziert wird'). The second letter [the promised enclosure] reads: '...you have told me that you have had to assume another name to save your life from the hands of the Gestapo and that now you have to prove to the authorities that your real name is Hugo Simon. I am gladly willing to testify before every government agency that I have known you and your family well...also...that you have always been a reliable citizen, both personally and politically....' (2)
Hugo Simon (1880–1950) was a multifaceted character: banker, politician, patron and art collector, he was one of the key figures in Berlin's life during the Weimar Republic. In his villa in Berlin Tiergarten, he regularly welcomed prominent personalities such as Max Liebermann, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Stefan Zweig, and on his walls works by Monet and Pissarro were hung side-by-side with those of the German Expressionists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Max Pechstein. Like most German intellectuals, many of whom were Jewish, Hugo Simon had to flee the Nazi regime in 1933. He and his wife Gertrude left Germany in March and managed to take a large part of their art collection with them. They arrived in Paris in April 1933. A few months later, in October, all their belongings in Germany were seized. They remained in Paris from March 1937 to June 1940, staying in various hotels and then renting an apartment at 102, rue de Grenelle in the 7th arrondissement. In June 1940, they were forced to leave Paris for Marseille and later to abandon war-torn Europe altogether and go into exile in Brazil, where they arrived in March 1941. A large part of Simon's collection was looted by the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg).
Besondere Verdienste erwarb sich Hugo Simon als Mäzen und Sammler; als Mitglied der einflussreichen Ankaufskommission der Neuen Abteilung der Nationalgalerie (Eröffnung 1919) unter Ludwig Justi war er entscheidend am Aufbau von Berlins innovativstem Museum beteiligt; 1920 machte er mit Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs Ruhender Frau (1912) der Nationalgalerie ein persönliches Geschenk. Als Kunde der Galerien Ferdinand Möller, Paul Cassirer, Herwarth Walden und Alfred Flechtheim war Hugo Simon mit verschiedenen Kunsthändlern verbunden, wobei das Verhältnis zu Paul Cassirer besonders eng war: Er beauftragte ihn mit dem Umbau seiner neuen Villa in Berlin-Tiergarten, die durch seine Sammelleidenschaft und Cassirers Expertise zu einem Tempel der Kunst wurde: Gemälde von Camille Pissarro und Claude Monet schmückten das Esszimmer, im Wintergarten schuf Max Slevogt ein Wandgemälde, mit dem er das in den 1920er Jahren beliebte Papageien-Motiv aufnahm. Im Außenbereich stand ein Brunnen mit einer Plastik des Bildhauers Georg Kolbe. Hugo Simon führte ein offenes Haus; er brachte Menschen zusammen, bei ihm verkehrten u.a. Albert Einstein, Max Liebermann, Harry Graf Kessler und Renée Sintenes, knüpfte Verbindungen und verlor dabei das karitative Engagement nicht aus den Augen: Beispielsweise las im Dezember 1929 Thomas Mann im Rahmen eines Dinners in seinem Haus aus dem Joseph-Manuskript, und der Gastgeber sammelte Spenden für die Jüdische Altenhilfe.
Der Bankier und Mäzen Hugo Simon (1880–1950), heute fast vergessen, war eine der Schlüsselfiguren des Berliner Lebens in der Zwischenkriegszeit. Die Vielfalt seiner kulturellen, politischen und wirtschaftlichen Interessen und des damit verbundenen Engagements ließen Hugo Simon zum Mittelpunkt eines einzigartigen Netzwerks werden. Deutlich wird das an seinen beiden Häusern: der (im Krieg zerstörten) Villa in Berlin-Tiergarten und dem Gut in Seelow im Oderbruch. Beide Orte waren nicht nur private Refugien, sondern soziale Treffpunkte, die Menschen zusammenbrachten; Ausstellungsflächen, die moderner und ‚klassischer' Kunst Raum boten; Experimentierfelder für innovative landwirtschaftliche Methoden (Seelow); Bühnen für ‚halböffentliche' Kulturveranstaltungen und (politische) Diskussionsforen. Vor diesem Hintergrund soll Hugo Simons Leben und Werk wieder sichtbar gemacht werden.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The Reichsanzeiger announced yesterday that the government had confiscated the property of Hugo Simon, partner in the Banking House of Bett Simon, who was the Prussian Minister of Finance in 1919 and affiliated with the Independent Labor Party.
The project focuses on the collection of the Jewish, Berlin banker, art collector, pacifist, politician and agriculturalist Hugo Simon (1880-1950), dispersed due to persecution under the National Socialist regime. The collection, built up between 1910 and 1933, comprised at least 150 works, among paintings, works on paper and sculptures, with an emphasis on German Expressionism and French Impressionism, but also including works by Old Masters and nineteenth-century artists. There was also an extensive library, furniture, carpets and antique glass. Until Simon's flight from Germany, this art collection was considered one of the most important in Berlin. Its existence spans the period from its creation around 1910 to its forced dissolution in the period from 1933 to 1945.
Hugo Simon, a Jewish banker and finance minister based in Berlin and a supporter of many "degenerate" artists lost many works to the Nazis. He was also the owner of what recently became the world's most expensive painting, Edvard Munch's The Scream, which he consigned to a Swiss gallery in 1937. Rafael Cardoso, Simon's great-grandson believes that Simon only let the masterpiece go because of Nazi persecution. The question is: did Simon consign the work in the normal course of business or did he have no choice? It was not clear he was paid for it. At the very least he probably saved this particular Scream (there are four versions) from destruction. Cardoso refused compensation offers from the consignor, Norwegian shipping magnate Petter Olsen, stating that his only issue was a moral one: "That the legacy of those who were wronged should be remembered and respected." The sale went ahead regardless, and The Scream was sold for a record-breaking $119.9 million to New York billionaire Leon Black, who bought it in May 2012 before loaning it to New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The project focuses on the collection of the Jewish, Berlin banker, art collector, pacifist, politician and agriculturalist Hugo Simon (1880-1950), dispersed due to persecution under the National Socialist regime. The collection, built up between 1910 and 1933, comprised at least 150 works, among paintings, works on paper and sculptures, with an emphasis on German Expressionism and French Impressionism, but also including works by Old Masters and nineteenth-century artists. There was also an extensive library, furniture, carpets and antique glass. Until Simon's flight from Germany, this art collection was considered one of the most important in Berlin. Its existence spans the period from its creation around 1910 to its forced dissolution in the period from 1933 to 1945.