Salomon Heine
Salomon Heine | |
---|---|
Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg | |
Died | 23 December 1844 |
Occupation | Banker |
Known for | Promoting poet Heinrich Heine |
Relatives | Heinrich Heine (nephew) |
Salomon Heine (19 October 1767 – 23 December 1844) was a
Life
Heine learned the trade of banking at Bankhaus Popert in Hamburg. Subsequently, he started his own business as a draft broker, cooperating closely with Emanuel Anton von Halle. In 1797, together with Marcus Abraham Heckscher (1770–1823), he founded the Heckscher & Co. merchant bank. In 1818, now being the sole executive director, he changed the company's name to Bankhaus Salomon Heine. During the following years he rose to becoming one of Hamburg's most successful bankers of the time.
Promoter of poet Heinrich Heine
Salomon Heine let young Heinrich Heine work and learn at his Hamburg bank Heckscher & Co. and eventually offered Heinrich a position with the cloth company Harry Heine & Comp. Heinrich though, who had fallen in love with Salomon's daughter Amalie, devoted himself chiefly to poetry and took very little interest in business. Soon he had to declare bankruptcy. Salomon Heine was angered by his nephew choosing poetry as a way of life, in which he himself saw no money. His disapproval became apparent in the dictum: "Hätt er gelernt was Rechtes, müsst er nicht schreiben Bücher (Had he learned something proper he needed not write books)." Nonetheless, Salomon paid for Heinrich's studies in Jurisprudence and until his death he regularly granted Heinrich financial aid.
Benefactor of Hamburg
Salomon Heine's bounty and his position as benefactor are traded by an anecdote: emissaries from a
Moreover, Heine worked in Hamburg for the rest of his life. After the disastrous
What Heine as a personality meant for Hamburg was most clearly shown though at his funeral. It turned into a demonstration of connecting popularity: thousands of people, Jews as well as Christians, spontaneously accompanied Heine on his last journey to the Ottensen Jewish cemetery.
References
- Kramer, Gerhard F.; Erich Lüth (1968). Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte (ed.). "Salomon Heine in seiner Zeit - Gedenkreden zu seinem 200. Geburtstag". Vorträge und Aufsätze (in German) (16). Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg.
- Wiborg, Susanne (1994). Salomon Heine: Hamburgs Rothschild - Heinrichs Onkel (in German). Hans Christians Verlag. ISBN 3-7672-1227-7.
External links
- "Salomon Heine", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 8, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1969, p. 291
- v. Melle, W. (1880), "Salomon Heine", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 11, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 359–361