Mathwar/Personlist/Pringsheim Alfred
Alfred Pringsheim
(* September 2nd 1850 in Ohlau, † June 25th 1941 in Zurich)
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationAlfred Pringsheim
Life
From 1933 to 1939 his life was made impossible as a non-Aryan. His house was taken away and he was forced to sell it to the Nazi party. It was not because the Nazis wanted to use the grand mansion for they demolished it and built a party headquarters on the site. In 1938 Pringsheim was forced out of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences by the president Alexander Mueller. In March 1939 the German Ministry of Trade authorized export of Pringsheim's Majolica collection to London for auction at Sotheby's, provided that 80% of the proceeds up to 20,000 pounds and 70% of the remainder be paid to the German Gold Discount Bank in foreign currency. Pringsheim was to receive the remaining proceeds. In exchange, Pringsheim and his wife were allowed to emigrate to Switzerland. The sale took place at Sotheby's, London, on 7 June 1939.
Before he left Germany to go to Zurich, Pringsheim gave to his friend Carathéodory a present of a very rare text from Jacob Bernoulli to his brother Johann Bernoulli containing the solution to the isoperimetric problem. Alfred and Hedwig Pringsheim moved to Zurich in 1939. He died there two years later, his wife dying in the following year.