Albert Kahn (banker)

Albert Kahn ( born March 3, 1860 in Marmoutier, † November 14, 1940 in Boulogne- Billancourt ) was a French banker and one of the richest men in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. He was a pioneer of color photography.

Life

Albert Kahn was born the son of a Jewish cattle dealer in Alsace and was one of five siblings. At nineteen, he went to Paris, where he found a job as a bank clerk. At the same time he studied literature and law. In 1884 he passed the state examination.

During his studies, he became friends with Henri Bergson, who became his lifelong friend. Kahn 1892 director and part-owner of the famous banking house Goudchaux in Paris. The acquisition of his property in Boulogne- Billancourt, near Paris fell in the year 1893., Where he was in the years 1894 to 1910 by the landscape architect Achille Duchêne make a large garden, which reflects the garden culture of different countries. The garden and the associated buildings served Kahn to maintain contact with his friends, which included among others, Albert Einstein, Austen Chamberlain, Raymond Barres, Paul Valéry, Anatole France and Auguste Rodin.

In 1898 he founded the Foundation Bourses Autour du Monde, which should enable young graduates to travel the world for a year. It was in 1906 out of the discussion group Autour du Monde, were discussed in the impressions and experiences of these trips. 1916 followed by the establishment of the Comité National d' Etudes politiques et sociales, have been discussed in the current of influential personalities questions. The Committee, at its meetings was also attended by German politicians, 1931, met for the last time.

His book Des droits et des Devoirs of gouvernments (rights and duties of Governments ) appeared in 1918.

In the wake of the stock market and world economic crisis of 1929 Kahn lost his entire fortune and died in 1940 completely depleted after the German Betzung France.

Les Archives de la Planète

Albert Kahn used his wealth to build the then largest ethnological photo and film project 1908-1930 - " Les Archives de la Planète " ("The Archive of the planet "). This includes more than one hundred hours of film and more than 72,000 color photographs from around the world. His idea was to create the visual representation of everyday life from all parts of the world an understanding of other people and their culture and thus a peaceful world. At the same time his archive but also held many since vanished cultures in Europe, Africa, America and Asia in the image fixed, ways of life, which disappeared by the emerging technological revolution in the coming years.

Kahn made ​​his case the 1903 was invented by the Lumière brothers Autochrome process advantage, the first photographic process allowed pictures with real colors.

Albert Kahn's archive is now housed in the Musée Albert -Kahn in Paris. A BBC series ( German title The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn ) and a book about the series try to lift the treasure represents this archive, for today's world. The first exhibition of these images after the Second World War took place during the exhibition " Color in the photo " Josef- Haubrich - Kunsthalle Köln place in 1981. The City Museum Dusseldorf organized in 2010 the first solo exhibition on Albert Kahn and the archives of the planet in Germany.

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