House of the Wannsee Conference

The Berlin Club

Various British-style ‘clubs’ were formed in Germany in the second half of the 19th century.  In London there were around 100, in Berlin twelve, most of them political and financed by political parties. The ‘Berlin Club’, founded in 1864, defined its aims as ‘promoting sociable entertainment and personal acquaintance amongst members’, who all belonged to the same social class and pursued similar financial goals. Wilhelm Conrad was a member, at times president. He is acknowledged in a memorandum as being ‘founder of the most beautiful villa colony in Berlin-Wannsee’. Numerous club members were inspired by his Alsen Colony project.Members met at the clubhouse in order to dine well. Afterwards, an invited speaker would deliver a lecture, which was then discussed. Women were not allowed. Club members saw themselves as predominantly pro-Kaiser, national liberal men, against excessive nationalism, power-seeking and anti-semitism. Of the initial 180 members, several were Jews, although mostly baptised. By 1918 there were 300 members, and thereafter the number rose to over 700.

    
Clubhouse at No. 2/3 Jägerstrasse, 1892
Foto: M. Wolff

The membership of the ‘Millionaires’ Club’, as it was commonly known, resembled the population of the villa colony in Wannsee: a number of senior civil servants and successful artists, almost all the directors of the major banks and leading industrial men. These included: Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reich Central Bank; Carl Bosch, IG Farben; Conrad and Ernst von Borsig, industrialists; Count Albrecht von Bernstorff, official at the German embassy in London; Julius Curtius, secretary of state for trade and commerce; Fritz Andrae, banker; Franz von Mendelssohn, president of the International Chamber of Commerce; Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, banker; Robert Hoesch, director of Hoesch plc. iron and steel works; Karl Merck, pharmaceuticals manufacturer; Adelbert Delbrück, Delbrück-Schickler & Co.; Carl Duisberg, chairman of the board of directors of IG Farben; Bill Drews, secretary of state and president of the administrative high court; Bodo Ebhardt, architect; Julius Flechtheim, general director of Köln-Rottweil plc.; Carl Friedrich von Siemens, Ernst von Simson, state secretary and IG Farben, August von Simson, senior judge; Robert von Simson, senior judge; Gustav Stresemann, Foreign Minister; W. Solf, secretary of state in the colonial and foreign offices;  ambassador in Tokyo, Fritz von Liebermann; factory owner, Herbert M. Gutmann; director of the Dresdener Bank, Ernst Springer; senior finance official; Julius Springer, publisher.

Smoking room, 2nd floor, 1892

Full members paid a joining fee of 200,000 Marks and a yearly subscription of 40,000 Marks. Although there were several aristocrats amongst the membership, there was no class disparity, as the Kaiser had been very generous with titles in the Wilhelmine era. In 1893, a new 452,000 Mark clubhouse was built in the Jägerstraße. During the first decades, the gentlemen favoured social activities such as baccarat, billiards and skittles, and they were not averse to enjoying fine champagnes and Bordeaux wines. However, towards the end of the century, teetotal tendencies came to predominate.

A culture of reformist living promoted an interest in sport: sailing, golf, tennis and car sports became very popular in upper middle class circles. In the twenties, with the old guard superseded by the next generation, members often complained about the lack of leisure time for socialising. Instead of dining extravagantly as their grandfathers had done, the grandsons met only briefly over breakfast or a midday snack at the clubhouse. Conversations became short and to the point, and style became irrelevant. One club member remarked with regret that ‘the salons have gone!’ The art of conversing with intellect and grace had apparently been lost.

Update: 20 August 2004