House of the Wannsee Conference

The Oppenheim family

In 1886 the renowned church architect Johannes Otzen built a villa in neo-Gothic style in Friedrich-Karl-Straße 24 (today: Am Sandwerder 17/19) for the chernist Franz Oppenheim. It was popularly given the mocking name "Mäuseburg" (Mice mountain). Oppenheim lived there with his wife Else, who was one of the daughters of the coal magnate Caesar Wollheim, and there two children, Martha and Kurt. When Else Oppenheim died in 1904, Franz Oppenheim sold the villa to the banker Siegfried Samuel, whose wife lived there until 1926. The next owner was the Dresden banker Hans Arnhold, who had major renovation work carried out on the building.

Else and Franz Oppenheim, around 1892

In 1936 he ernigrated to the USA with his family. Three years later the building became the official residence of the Reich Economics Minister, Walther Funk, who comrnissioned further renovations. After 1945 the building was used by the American Allies as a "Recreation Center", and since 1998 it has housed the headquarters of the Hans-Arnhold-Center of the American Academy. Franz Oppenheim (1852-1929) was the son of a legal official in the town court; his mother was one of the great-granddaughters of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. After completing his studies in chemistry in 1880 he started work for the Agfa intermediate products factory in Rummelsburg, of which he was to become Director General. The company was soon very successful in the production of pharmaceutical products and photo films. In 1909 the biggest film factory on the continent was opened in Wolfen. Franz Oppenheirn had a leading role in the merger of Agfa with BASF, Bayer, Hoechst and others to form IG Farbenindustrie AG.

In 1907 he rnarried the widow Margarete Reichenheim and commissioned the famous architect Alfred Messel to design a country residence at Am Großen Wannsee 43-45 with a gardener's house, gatehouse and greenhouse, the so-called "Große Messei". The fruit and vegetable garden was located at Am Großen Wannsee 46 and the garage and stables at Zum Heckeshorn 38.

 The spacious garden was decorated with works by the animal sculptor August Gaul, including his "Penguin Fountain". Margarete Oppenheim built up a collection of modem art, of which her family was most unappreciative at first. The gallery owner Paul Cassirer had encouraged her to collect paintings by Paul Cezanne and as a result Margarete Oppenheim became the most important collector of this painter in Germany. She was also one of the first collectors of the works of van Gogh and Manet. Margarete Oppenheim formed a circle of friends with artistic arnbitions in Wannsee, which also included natural scientists such as Albert Einstem.

Franz Oppenheim died in Cairo in 1929 during a trip to Egypt and was buried at the Neuen Friedhof in Wannsee next to his first wife Else. Margarete Oppenheim died five years later. The property in Wannsee went to the children Martha und Kurt, who left Germany in the 1930s. The valuable art collection was divided amongst the heirs and a large part of it was sold by the Feilchenfeldt gallery in Zürich.

Update: 20 August 2004