Hugo Simon (born 1 September 1880 in Usch, Posen Province, died 1 July 1950 in São Paulo, Brazil) was a German Jewish banker, politician and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis. He was a former owner of Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream. After the November Revolution of 1918, he was briefly Minister of Finance in the Prussian Council of People's Representatives as a member of the USPD. Alfred Döblin dealt with this short time as a politician in his novel November 1918.
Early life
Hugo Simon came from a Jewish family. His father was the teacher Victor Simon, his mother was Sophie Simon nee Jablonski. He grew up on his father's farm in Kahlstädt in the Kolmar district (Posen province) and completed an agricultural training course and an apprenticeship in a bank in Marburg. After his father's death and the sale of the property, Simon lived with his wife Gertrud and their daughters Anette and Ursula in Berlin-Zehlendorf. In 1911 Simon founded the private bank Carsch Simon & Co. together with Otto Carsch. In 1922 the partners separated and Simon founded the successor company Bett Simon & Co. together with Kasimir Bett and Kurt Gutmacher.
Hugo Simon was chairman of the supervisory board of Allgemeine Häuserbau-AG from 1872 - Adolf Sommerfeld (Berlin), deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Cröllwitzer Actien-Papierfabrik (Halle ad Saale), member of the supervisory board of G. Feibisch AG (Berlin), steam brickworks Bergenhorst AG (Berlin), the Deutsche Grundkreditbank AG (Gotha-Berlin), R. Frister AG (Berlin-Oberschöneweide), Multiplex-Gasfernünder GmbH (Berlin), Terrain-AG Botanischer Garten - Zehlendorf West (Berlin), Thüringische Landeshypothekenbank AG (Weimar) and the Wurzen art mills and biscuit factories vorm. F. Krietsch (Wurzen) (all as of 1931).
Hugo Simon was a well-known art lover, collector and patron. He was a member of the purchasing committee of the Nationalgalerie Berlin. He was a member of the supervisory board of S. Fischer Verlag and Ullstein Verlag and banker of the publisher Paul Cassirer. Politicians, artists, scientists and scholars met every week in his house. These included Bertolt Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, Alfred Döblin, Arnold Zweig, Heinrich Mann, Stefan Zweig and Carl Zuckmayer, also visual artists such as Max Pechstein, Oskar Kokoschka and George Grosz, also the actress Tilla Durieux, the publishers Samuel Fischer, Ernst Rowohlt and the Ullstein brothers and politicians like the Prussian Prime Minister Otto Braun. In addition, Hugo Simon was friends among others. with Albert Einstein, Karl Kautsky and Thomas Mann. The poet Else Lasker-Schüler dedicated her poem Gott hör ... to “Hugo Simon dem Boas” in 1920.
In 1921 Hugo Simon bought the former “Schweizerhaus” restaurant in Seelow (Brandenburg) and built a model farm here with cattle, poultry, fruit and vegetable cultivation. In 1923/24 he had a replica of Goethe's garden house built on the site in Weimar. The builder was the architect Ernst Rossius-Rhyn. There was also a small park with aviaries for different species of parakeets and pheasants and a bird fountain designed by the ceramicist Emil Pottner. He was a member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and worked among other things. together with Erwin Baur, director at the institute for breeding run by the Kaiser Wilhelm Society ungsforschung in Müncheberg.
Nazi persecution
Immediately after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Hugo Simon and his wife fled to Paris via Switzerland. He founded a bank again, supported refugee aid and got involved politically, among other things. as a founding member of the pacifist organization Bund Neues Vaterland (German League for Human Rights). . Shortly before the occupation of Paris by the Wehrmacht, he and his wife managed to escape to Marseille in June 1940. Finally, in February 1941, both were able to travel to Brazil via Spain and Portugal with Czech passports under the code names "Hubert Studenic" and "Garina Studenic".
The couple initially lived in Rio de Janeiro, then moved to Barbacena, where Hugo Simon devoted himself to raising silkworms. He died in São Paulo in 1950.
Art collection
Simon's extensive art collection was one of the most important in Berlin. Gathered between 1910 and 1933 it contained about 150 artworks. Nazi plunder, duress sales and flight as a refugee dispersed the collection. Artworks remaining in Germany were seized by the Nazis on 9 October 1933, with Simon's other property. Some of Simon's collection ended up in Switzerland in the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Edvard Munch's famous The Scream ended up in Norway in the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter