| 152 | Adolph Lewisohn Copper Magnate in the “Gilded Age” by Henning Albrecht The Patrons of Science Publ. by Ekkehard Nümann Sponsored by Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr., Oscar Lewisohn, Daniela Chiara, Daniel L. Kahn, Richard Lewisohn III and Mark Simon Dedicated to the families who with their generous donations 112 years ago made possible the establishment of the Hamburg Scientific Foun- dation and were instrumental in ensuring that the foundation can continue to promote research and education. Inhalt Vorwort des Herausgebers . S. 3 1. Quellenlage . S. 4 2. Der Familien- und Firmengründer Georg Friedrich Vorwerk . S. 6 3. Zur Kindheit und Jugend der Vorwerk-Brüder . S. 15 4. Eine Reise von Augustus Friedrich nach Nordamerika und Kuba . S. 23 5. Die Firmen in Chile und Hamburg . S. 28 6. Friedrich, Adolph und deren Ehefrauen in den Erinnerungen dreier Enkel . S. 44 7. „Villa Josepha“ und „Haupthaus“ . S. 54 8. Gustav Adolph als Bau- und Gartengestalter . S. 60 9. Entwicklungen nach dem Tod der Brüder . S. 67 10. Anhänge . S. 70 11. Literatur . S. 72 12. Namensregister . S. 74 Contents Publiosher’s preface . 4 Preface of the English Translation . 5 Preface of the German Edition . 8 1. Prologue . 10 2. Youth in Hamburg . 16 School and Apprenticeship . 23 3. Adolph Lewisohn in New York – 1867 . 29 4. Copper . 40 Red Metal . 40 Electrolysis . 47 Mergers . 48 Secretan’s Syndicate . 52 Copper wars . 55 “An afternoons reflection” – Adolph Lewisohn’s business philosophy . 66 5. Adolph Lewisohn’s Private Life . 74 Adolph Lewisohn’s attitude toward religion . 85 6. Social and political activities . 94 7. Prison reform . 99 8. The art collector . 104 9. Adolph Lewisohn as Benefactor . 111 10. Epilogue . 128 11. Appendices . 135 Family tree (excerpts) . 136 Adolph Lewisohn: biographical timeline . 138 12. Sources, Literature and Photo Credits . 139 13. Index . 145 | 3 | Publisher’s preface The Hamburg Scientific Foundation celebrated its centenary in 2007. This is the thirteenth volume in the series “The Patrons of Science” initiated to mark this occasion. The series covers the history of the foundation, and the individual volumes honour the founders and members of the board of trustees. The creation of this series reflects our gratitude to those who more than 100 years ago had the courage to create the foundation for promoting the sciences and academic research in Hamburg, and who ensured that this city would have a university. It is furthermore our hope and expectation that future generations will take this as an example. Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr., Oscar Lewisohn, Daniela Chiara, Daniel L. Kahn, Richard Lewisohn III, and Mark Simon lived up to this hope in a most generous fashion, for which we owe them our utmost gratitude and thanks. Ekkehard Nümann | 4 | Preface of the English Translation My mother always said that my great grandfather, Adolph Lewisohn, was the most interesting man in our family – and in many ways he was! As a child, I believed that Adolph was of royalty. An idea that came from the tremendous to-do my parents and other grown-ups made over him. In latter years, I concluded that this admiration for great grandfather Adolph must have been because he was very rich, gave great parties. He was at the same time an extraor- dinary philanthropist who, among other things, helped prisoners in the American penitentiary system. His magnificent mansion on Fifth Avenue from where we watched the St. Patrick’s Day parade and his own railroad car which took us to Prospect Point, the Adiron- dack Lodge where he was reputed to have entertained presidents, including Presi - dent Calvin Coolidge, laid testament to the grandeur of his lifestyle. He gave New York City an enormous stadium that looked like a Roman Amphitheatre. Known as the Lewisohn Stadium, our family and thousands of New Yorkers went every summer to hear music performed by the New York Philharmonic and other major international orchestras and artists. Sadly, the stadium no longer exists; its pro- perty has for many years been part of City College, on the Upper West Side of New York City. In a chapter of Stephen Birmingham’s “Our Crowd”, Adolph’s father was known as “Der reiche Lewisohn”. The family business had started in 1740 and could trace their pedigree back to 1609. Of the four silver spoons with which I was privileged to be born (Loeb, Lehman, Moses and Lewisohn), my great grandfather, Adolph Lewisohn, was already the wealthiest before his family’s arrival to the U.S.A. and probably, at one point, had a bigger fortune than any of the others. I met Adolph twice as a child: once at his farm in Westchester County, and once on Christmas Eve in the ballroom of his Fifth Avenue Mansion. I remember clearly | 5 | the gigantic Christmas tree. My siblings and I received so many presents that our parents had to arrange for a separate station-wagon to take them home. The heading to my great grandfather Adolph’s obituary in the New York Times reads, “Successful and Happy”. It goes on to state, “the characteristic which made him beloved by most people with whom he came in contact, was his unfailing cheerfulness.” The obituary then quotes a letter Adolph had written, “I love the beautiful. I have always been for flowers, music and art in all its forms.” Much to the delight of his guests on his 82nd birthday, he sang. It was his interest in life and the good and beautiful that he found in life that kept him young. On his 85th birthday, congratulations were received from all over the world. Among the well-wishers was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yet, the message which gave him the most pleasure came from the Mutual Welfare League at Sing Sing Prison, which he was a benefactor of for years. Although I only met him a few times in my childhood, I happened to be at Prospect Point when he died in August 1938. In those days, telephones lines were shared, and often, during thunderstorms, service was interrupted. Such was the case on the day of his death and I, a boy of eight, was dispatched as the sole messenger to tell everyone at Gull Bay (my parents’ camp) the news. The captain of Adolph’s large motor launch, the Helen B, piloted me across the lake. Puffed up with the importance of this prestigious assignment, I could hardly wait to make the an- nouncement. Nonetheless, I recognized the gravity of my mission. “Grandpa Adolph has just died”, I pronounced, with as much dignity as I could muster. In Paris, in the early 1900s, Adolph started to buy impressionist paintings and by 1930, owned a number of the finest. My grandmother, Adele Lewisohn, and her younger brother, Sam, grew up with these great paintings surrounding them. Sam Lewisohn expanded the buying of French impressionist art and he became a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum. In 1951, Sam oversaw the dispersal of Adolph’s and his own collections, bequeathing them to numerous American muse- ums. To the Metropolitan came Renoir’s “In The Meadow”, Cezanne’s “Apples And Primroses”, Gaugin’s “Ia Orana Maria”, and van Gogh’s masterwork, “L’Arlesienne”, among others – all are still displayed and being enjoyed by today’s visitors at that great New York institution. All through the Great Depression Adolph had continued to live his lavish life and continued giving away enormous sums of money. Adolph’s legacy was a great history and exemplary philanthropy – by the time of his death he had spent or given away everything! | 6 | Adolph Lewisohn was often described as a “model humanitarian” and, in my opinion, he was exactly that! This English translation of the book about Adolph Lewisohn is happily co-spon- sored by me, (Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr., Purchase, Westchester, NY), and Adolph Lewisohn’s other direct descendants, Daniela Chiara, Venice, Mark Simon, Connecticut, Daniel L. Kahn, Massachusetts, as well as my cousins and friends Oscar Lewisohn, London and Copenhagen, and Richard Lewisohn III, New York. It was originally published in German by the Hamburg Scientific Foundation, of which AdolphLewisohn was an early and major sponsor. Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. March 22, 2019 | 7 | Preface of the German Edition In 1901, at the dawn of the new century, the widely esteemed German banker and economic expert Ludwig Max Goldberger (1848‒1913) set out to study the economic life in the United States and above all its trust system. It is entirely possible that on this occasion he also met with his contemporary Adolph Lewisohn, who is the subject of this exceedingly informative biography. When Goldberger, at the end of his study tour in New York, was asked about his impressions, he answered succinctly: “The United States is the land of unlimited possibilities” – a quote that can be found in the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung of June 3rd, 1902, No. 132. This characterization of the rising economic might of the United States, which expressed both admiration and unease, launched a familiar saying which has lost nothing of its suggestive power to this day. Since 1903, at the latest, when Goldberger published his impressions and visions of the future in book form, Germans have spoken of the United States almost self-evidently as the “land of unlimited possibilities”. Just how potent this fascination with Ame- rica has remained even today is evident from the title of Wolf von Lojewski’s book Amerika: Ein Traum vom neuen Leben [America: A Dream of a New Life] published in 1991. This was also the dream of young Adolph Lewisohn, the son of a long-established Jewish merchant family in Hamburg.