Julius Stern (banker)
Julius Bernhard Stern | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | March 23, 1914 (aged 55) Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Banker, art collector, philanthropist |
| Known for | Director of National Bank for Germany; prominent art collection; philanthropy |
Julius Bernhard Stern (born 26 July 1858 in Hamburg – died 23 March 1914 in Berlin) was a prominent German Jewish figure known for his roles as a banker, art collector, and philanthropist.
Life
Son of Moritz Stern and Mathilde Sterna, Julius Stern assumed the role of director at the National Bank for Germany in 1883 when he was just 24 years old, maintaining this leadership position until his passing in 1914. His influence extended to supervisory board memberships at institutions such as Dresdner Bank and the arms manufacturing firm Ludwig Loewe & Co.
He married Malgonia Karpeles, and the couple lived at 6a Bellevuestraße in Berlin’s Tiergarten district. From 1912 onward, they commissioned architect Paul Baumgarten to design a country residence in Geltow near Potsdam. The interiors of both their city and country homes were enhanced by designer Henry van de Velde. The Sterns were deeply integrated into artistic circles: Malgonia was a pupil of painter Dora Hitz, served as muse to poet Otto Julius Bierbaum, and was sculpted by Georg Kolbe. Julius Stern himself was frequently depicted by painter Max Liebermann. Their social network included art historian Julius Meier-Graefe, Berlin Secession artists such as Leo von König and Eugene Spiro, as well as actress Tilla Durieux.
As patrons of the arts, the Sterns supported budding talents and art critic Karl Scheffler. Julius Stern contributed artworks to the Berlin National Gallery, including a portrait by Dora Hitz in 1897. In 1912, he played a key role in securing architect Joseph Maria Olbrich’s collection of drawings for Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts and Art Library. His donations to the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin encompassed etchings and lithographs by Max Liebermann (1911), followed by pieces from Rudolf Großmann, Hans Meid, and Waldemar Rösler (1912).
Art collection
Julius Stern amassed a collection exceeding 200 pieces, ranking among Germany’s foremost modern art compilations prior to World War I. His acquisitions spanned artists from the Berlin Secession alongside French Impressionist, Late Impressionist, and Nabis movements.
Prominent works included portraits by Max Liebermann and paintings such as Garden of the Old Man's House in Amsterdam, Emperor Friedrich's Memorial Party near Kösen, and Dutch Sewing School. The collection also contained Lovis Corinth’s Woman with Flowers, Max Slevogt’s Trotting Races (currently at the National Gallery Berlin), plus landscapes by Walter Leistikow and Lesser Ury. Additional significant pieces featured Max Beckmann’s Landscape in a Thunderstorm (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne), Wilhelm Trübner’s Guard Officer in the Woods, along with three artworks by Ludwig von Hofmann.
French artists represented included Jean-François Raffaëlli’s Street Vendor with Dog, Édouard Manet’s Woman's Head, and Claude Monet’s Garden in Vetheuil and Poppy Field near Vetheuil (Foundation Collection E. G. Bührle, Zurich). Berthe Morisot’s Beach near Fécamps (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.) was also part of his holdings, together with works by Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas (Swedish National Museum).
Among Late Impressionist masterpieces were Paul Cézanne’s Tulips in a Vase (Norton Simon Museum), Vincent van Gogh's Garden at Arles (lost during WWII) and Olive Harvest at Arles (National Gallery of Art), as well as Paul Gauguin’s Te arii vahine (Pushkin Museum, Moscow). Pointillist paintings included Henri Edmond Cross’s Park Landscape, Paul Signac’s The Port in Rotterdam, and Théo van Rysselberghe’s Hilly Landscape. Symbolist and Nabis works featured Eugène Carrière’s Girlfriends, Georgette Agutte’s The Seine at Bonnières, Pierre Bonnard’s Racecourse, Maurice Denis’s series such as Bathers and Nuns at Mass, along with Édouard Vuillard’s At the Dining Table.
Julius Stern was among the earliest German collectors to acquire a painting by Pablo Picasso; his 1901 piece titled Lady in a Hoop Skirt is currently preserved at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.
Death and legacy
Julius Stern passed away on 23 March 1914 at the age of 56 while attending a meeting at the National Bank. His coffin was placed before his portrait collection, and his funeral was attended by prominent figures from the worlds of finance, commerce, politics, art, and science, including the Vice-President of the German Reichstag. The eulogy was given by Max Liebermann. Following speeches by art historian Julius Meier-Graefe and architect Henry van de Velde, Stern was laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery.
After his death, his widow Malgonia loaned the Stern collection to the inaugural Freie Secession exhibition held at Kurfürstendamm starting 11 April 1914. Tragically, she took her own life on 20 May 1914, leaving behind their fifteen-year-old son. Subsequently, in 1916, the family's estate—which comprised European and Asian arts and crafts—was sold through an auction at the Cassirer auction house.
The Stern family was Jewish; their son Werner Otto Stern (1899–1942) was later killed at the Nazi Sobibor concentration camp in Poland.
Literature
- Cella-Margaretha Girardet: Jüdische Mäzene für die Preußischen Museen zu Berlin, eine Studie zum Mäzenatentum im Deutschen Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik. Hänsel-Hohenhausen, Egelsbach 1997, .
- Erich Hancke: Die Sammlung Stern. In: Kunst und Künstler, 1910, Heft 11, S. 536–548.
- Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern, Peter-Klaus Schuster (Hrsg.): Manet bis van Gogh, Hugo von Tschudi und der Kampf um die Moderne. Nationalgalerie Berlin und Neue Pinakothek München 1996, .
- Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer, Hugo Helbing (Hrsg.): Sammlung Julius Stern, Berlin. Auktionskatalog, Cassirer, Berlin 1916.
- Andrea Pophanken, Felix Billeter: Die Moderne und ihre Sammler, Französische Kunst in deutschem Privatbesitz vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2001, .