Franz Mayer

Franz Mayer, Franz Mayer- maid man ( born September 22, 1882 according to other sources 3 or September 16, 1882 in Mannheim, † 1975 in Mexico ) was a Mexican businessman and art collector of German descent. At the Museo Franz Mayer him in Mexico City goes back.

Life

Mayer grew up as the son of Jewish parents in the Mannheim squares on, and attended the 1891-1897 Karl- Friedrich-Gymnasium in Mannheim. He then completed a one-year voluntary military service. Presumably he was sergeant of the Baden Grenadier Regiment Kaiser Wilhelm No. 110

1901 Mayer left his parents' home and moved to London because he felt slighted over its far more attractive, facing brother. In England, he worked in financial transactions. In 1903 he moved to New York, where he is said to have worked for the investment bank Merrill Lynch, rather he settled in 1905 as an independent businessman in Mexico City. During the Mexican Revolution in 1910 he interrupted his work for two years and spent this time again in the U.S.. After returning to Mexico, he married at the age of 38 years Antonieta de la Macorra, but died two years later. In 1933 he participated in the Mexican nationality. His professional acquired wealth was the basis for his art collection, which forms the core of the museum named after him today.

Mayer was active in his spare time as a mountaineer and breeder of exotic plants. From numerous trips through Latin America, as well as an extended trip to the Near East and Egypt, he brought beyond with numerous own photographs, which he developed in his darkroom. His everyday life and nature Impressions of Mexico from the early 20th century have been published as picture book.

In the course of his life he amassed over 9,000 art objects, which filled 30 rooms of his house in the upmarket residential area of ​​Lomas de Chapultepec in Mexico City. The collection is available in the Museo Franz Mayer of the public. It shows one of the largest collections of decorative art in Mexico, with an emphasis on Mexican commercial art of the 16th - 18th Century, especially furniture, textiles, silver and ceramics.