Franz Hesselberger (March 12, 1876, in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria – July 15, 1935, ibid.) was a German industrialist, councilor of commerce and patron of the arts.
Life and Work
Franz Hesselberger was the second oldest of the five children (Else, Erich, Stefanie and Dorothea) of the leather goods wholesaler Julius Hesselberger and his wife Berta, née Gutmann. Julius Hesselberger came from an important hop merchant family from Dittenheim, about 30 kilometers east of the Hesselberg in Middle Franconia. On June 22, 1903, he was appointed a Kommerzienrat. Julius and his brother Isador founded the company Gebrüder Hesselberger in Biederstein, a district of Munich's Schwabing neighborhood, in 1869. To the north of the site was Biederstein Castle.
The business dealt in leather and leather goods, importing raw materials, initially from India, and later also from Asia, America and Africa. The Gebrüder Hesselberger company also began tanning and producing leather goods itself in its own factory at Biederstein 7 in Munich (now Isarring 11) in 1889. Extensions were constructed by Heilmann & Littmann. A new administration and canteen building was built in 1917. The factory had the latest leather processing machines, which were driven by a 260 hp steam engine from the MAN company and was capable of processing 60,000 large cattle hides and 30,000 skins annually in the 400 pits. For the approximately 250 workers, there was a canteen, a workers' sick support association, baths and residential buildings. In addition to the tannery, the leather was processed on site.
Social Ascent
After the death of his uncle Isidor on May 23, 1901, Hesselberger became a partner in the company. When Julius Hesselberger died on March 15, 1904, Franz took over management of the company together with brother Erich and cousin Max Alfons. A court-sworn expert for tanning and red tanning, he also sat on the supervisory board of the shoe factory Silberstein & Neumann AG in Schweinfurt and was a member of the admission board for securities at the Munich stock exchange. The company Gebrüder Hesselberger was one of the founding members of the Munich and Upper Bavaria district association of the Federation of Industrialists.
Franz Hesselberger owned considerable real estate in Munich, including, in addition to the manufacturing site at Biederstein 7, a retail store in the city center at Burgstraße 15, and properties at Brienner Strasse 48 and Osterwaldstrasse 8.
On August 14, 1908, Franz Hesselberger married Ilse Minna Rosa Wertheim (born April 11, 1888) in Frankfurt am Main, a granddaughter of the founder of the German sewing machine factory Joseph Wertheim. The couple moved to the third floor of the Prinz-Georg-Palais at Karolinenplatz 5, rnext to Emil Hirsch's antiquarian bookshop. Franz Hesselberger he leased an estate in 1901 and acquired the overall hunting rights. In September 1910 their son Heinz Julius was born, three years later, on October 13, 1913, their daughter Gertraud, called Trudy, was born. Both children were baptized Protestants, since Ilse Hesselberger had previously converted to the Protestant faith.
On January 7, 1918, he was appointed a Kommerzienrat. The family was engaged in philanthropy. Shortly after the death of his mother, Julius Hesselberger sent 500 Reichsmark in cash to the First Mayor of Munich, Wilhelm Ritter von Borscht, in March 1902, asking him to use the sum "in the spirit of our deceased mother (...) without distinction of denomination (...) for the poor of the city gefl." On the anniversary two years later, the sum of 1000 Reichsmark was again made available to the mayor.