Robert Max Hirsch
1883 - 1977

Robert Max Hirsch was born in Frankfurt on the Main in July 1883. His parents were the merchant Ferdinand Hirsch (1843-1916), born in Ingelheim on the Rhine, and Anna Pauline Mayer (1850-1925), born in Offenbach on the Main. The family lived at Rhein street 7, while their father's company Hirsch & Co. had its headquarters at Große Gallus street 19. Robert Max Hirsch had five siblings: Marie Ida Therese, married name Stern (1874-1932), Carl Siegmund Hirsch (1875-1938), Paul Adolf Hirsch (1881-1951) and Alice Regina, called Lili, married name Gerlach (?-1939).

Robert Max Hirsch attended the Goethe Gymnasium in Frankfurt on the Main, but left school at the age of 14 to work for his uncle Ludo Mayer's leather factory Julius Mayer & Sohn in Offenbach. According to Mahlau's Frankfurt address book from 1897, his parents lived at Westend street 52 at the time. From the time of his elevation to the peerage in 1913, he called himself Robert von Hirsch.

From the mid-1920s, Robert von Hirsch lived in a large house on Bockenheimer Landstrasse near the Palmengarten. Erich Pfeiffer-Belli, who had married one of Marie Stern's daughters and regularly dined with her uncle Robert von Hirsch on Sundays, describes this house in his autobiography: "Dieses Haus war so vollendet - ohne jede Aufdringlichkeit - eingerichtet, daß dem aufmerksamen, kunst- und kulturhistorisch einigermaßen Gebildeten der Atem wegbleiben konnte." (This house was so perfectly furnished - without any obtrusiveness - that the attentive person with some knowledge of art and cultural history would be left breathless.)

Robert von Hirsch married his childhood friend Martha Dreyfus, née Koch (1892-1965), in Switzerland in 1945. She was the daughter of the famous Frankfurt jeweler and collector Louis Koch. Her first marriage was to the Frankfurt banker Willy Dreyfus (1885-1977) and she had two children with him. The Dreyfus family fled to Switzerland in 1938. Martha and Willy Dreyfus divorced there. Robert and Martha von Hirsch had no children together.

Robert Hirsch joined the Offenbach leather factory Julius Mayer & Sohn in 1897 at the age of just 14. This company, founded in 1857, was managed by his mother's older brother Ludo Mayer (1845-1917). In 1906, at the age of just 23, Robert Hirsch became a partner in this company. His brother Paul Hirsch, who was two years older, joined his father Ferdinand Hirsch's company "Hirsch & Co." in Frankfurt on the Main. After his father's death, he managed this iron and metal trading company, based at Taunusanlage 18 (according to the Frankfurt address book of 1908), together with his wife Olga Hirsch.

In 1913, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt elevated Robert Hirsch to the nobility. From this time on, he called himself Robert von Hirsch. During the First World War, he served as a Prussian lieutenant in the cavalry, temporarily deployed on the Eastern Front. After the death of his uncle Ludo Mayer in 1917, Robert von Hirsch became the sole owner of the company Julius Mayer & Sohn. He succeeded in developing the company into one of the industry leaders and expanding the existing international trade contacts. He also built up a high-quality art collection with the help of Georg Swarzenski, the director of the Staedel Art Institute in Frankfurt on the Main.

With the beginning of the National Socialist dictatorship, the situation changed dramatically for Robert von Hirsch. He decided to emigrate quickly in 1933, but suffered great financial losses in the process. His Frankfurt property went to the city of Frankfurt on the Main for less than it was worth. His Offenbach leather factory was also taken over by the Salamander company for less than it was worth. He successfully built up a new company in Switzerland: Lederhandels AG.

After the end of the Second World War, he was compensated for some of his losses by the Federal Republic of Germany as part of indemnification proceedings. He also received back the work "Judgment of Paris" by Lukas Cranach the Elder, which he had been forced to give away in 1933 in exchange for taking his art collection with him. Overall, Robert von Hirsch was a successful entrepreneur in the German Reich until 1933 and then in Switzerland. Heinrich Kuhn characterized him in 1978 in connection with his art collection as follows:

"Es entsprach der vornehmen Zurückhaltung von Hirschs, die sich in seinem ganzen kühl-distanten Wesen ausdrückte, dass er nicht nach den Sternen greifen wollte, sondern sich mit ihn im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes ansprechenden, ihm adäquaten Bildern, Statuen, Zeichnungen, mittelalterlichen Kultgegenständen, Möbeln, Tapisserien und seltenen Büchern umgeben wollte; bestimmt für eine private Sphäre, seine Sphäre, in der er lebte und grandseigneural empfing." (It was in keeping with Hirsch's noble restraint, which was expressed in his entire cool and distant nature, that he did not want to reach for the stars, but rather wanted to surround himself with pictures, statues, drawings, medieval cult objects, furniture, tapestries and rare books that appealed to him in the truest sense of the word; intended for a private sphere, his sphere, in which he lived and received grandseigneurial reception.)

Robert Max Hirsch joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1908. He belonged to a family of mountain enthusiasts. His father Ferdinand Hirsch had already joined the Frankfurt section in 1896. His uncle Ludo Mayer (his mother's brother), in whose leather company he became a partner in 1906, had even joined in 1886. His brother Paul Adolf Hirsch, who was two years older, joined the Frankfurt section in 1911. Erich Pfeiffer-Belli describes him as follows: "Robert war sportlich, Autofahrer und Reiter - er diente einjährig freiwillig bei den Darmstädter Dragonern, im Leibregiment des Großherzogs -, ritt jeden Morgen gegen sieben Uhr im Frankfurter Stadtwald und war pünktlich mit seinem schwarzen Packard-Achtzylinder um halb neun in Offenbach, tagaus, tagein." (Robert was sporty, a driver and rider - he volunteered for one year with the Darmstadt dragoons, in the Grand Duke's personal regiment -, rode every morning at around seven o'clock in the Frankfurt city forest and was in Offenbach on time at half past eight in his black Packard eight-cylinder, day in, day out.)

The Hirsch-Mayer family donated money on various occasions, for example in 1909, uncle Ludo Mayer donated 100 marks in the form of share certificates for the Taschachhaus and in 1912, brother Paul Hirsch donated 5 marks for the extension of the Gepatschhaus. As far as we know, Ferdinand Hirsch remained a member of the Frankfurt on the Main section until his death in 1916 and Ludo Mayer until his death in 1917. His brother Paul is still listed as a member in 1914, but is no longer to be found in the list of members from 1925. He presumably left during the First World War or in the immediate post-war period for economic reasons--like so many others at the time.

Robert von Hirsch, as he had been known since his admission to the nobility in 1913, remained a member, however, as he is listed in the 1925 membership directory. He was also honored for his 25 years of membership at the annual general meeting on March 27, 1933, and was accordingly named in issue no. 2 of the Frankfurt section's March 1933 Nachrichten-Blatt. As he had joined before 1914 and was a so-called "Frontkämpfer" (front-line fighter) in the First World War, he was able to remain a member of the Frankfurt section of the Alpine Club despite the so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph), which was enshrined in the section's statutes in 1934. Whether he resigned from the section after emigrating to Switzerland, which took place in 1933, we are currently unable to say due to a lack of sources.

Robert von Hirsch was a forward-looking man. He had already registered a residence in Basel (Switzerland) in August 1932. His leather company had a branch there. He then emigrated from Frankfurt on the Main to Basel in 1933. At great loss, he was able to save part of his assets in Switzerland, in particular his art collection. However, he had to hand over the important work "Judgment of Paris" by Lukas Cranach the Elder in order to obtain permission to leave the country. He only received it back from the Federal Republic of Germany after the end of the Second World War and donated it to the Art Museum Basel in 1965, after the death of his wife. His Offenbach leather factory was taken over by the Salamander company at a reasonable price. In Basel, Robert von Hirsch ran the "Lederhandels AG", so that he was able to lead a corresponding lifestyle even in exile. In 1934, he moved into a large house at Engelgasse 55 in Basel.

His brother Paul Hirsch emigrated to Great Britain with his wife Olga Hirsch and their four children in 1936, where Paul died in 1951. His older brother, Dr. Carl Siegmund Hirsch, born in 1875, was arrested in November 1938 during the November pogroms in Frankfurt on the Main and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He died there on November 25, 1938, as a result of the mistreatment. This was despite the fact that Robert von Hirsch had paid the large sum of half a million Swiss francs for his release. Robert von Hirsch ensured that his brother Carl's urn was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt-Griesheim on February 3, 1939--the last burial ever in this cemetery.

Robert von Hirsch was granted Swiss citizenship in 1940. In gratitude, he donated Paul Gauguin's work "Ta Matete" to the Basel Art Museum the following year. In 1955, Robert von Hirsch was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel. Two years later, he left the Jewish community of Basel. Robert von Hirsch died in Basel in November 1977. His art collection was auctioned off at Sotheby's in 1978.