Hermann Elsbach

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Creator

H. K.

Dates

1914 (indexed as 1914)

Level

item

Extent

Plaque : molded ; Ht: 27 1 cm x W: 24 9 cm

Scope & content

Metal plaque, or bas-relief, which represents the portrait of Hermann Elsner. Brothers Josef and Hermann Elsbach founded the company in 1873 and in 1875 registered it as Herforder shirt factory J.Elsbach & Co. The founders came from a Jewish family in the clothing business since 1848. In 1907 Elsbach became a corporation. In 1914 the company was regarded as Europe's largest clothing company. More than 1,200 factory workers and thousands of home workers were employed. As part of the forced aryanizations of 1938, the family had to sell their shares. The company was taken over and renamed by Ahlers AG Herford linen factories. At the end of the Second World War, the factory buildings were heavily damaged by fire and looting. The military government in the British zone of occupation confiscated the shares of Ahlers in the company. In 1947, Ahlers came back to run the company but he died in 1954. From 1952 the company was called back Elsbach linen factories AG. The shares were returned to the surviving heirs of the Elsbach family, Gerhart Maass and his siblings. Donation by Joan Maass. Hermann Elsner is the grandfather of Teddy and Gerry Maass.

Location

No place found in this description yet.

Locate this photo

Genre / form

object

In the picture

BusinessmanGarment IndustryJewish CommunityManManufacturingPortraitSculptureTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

H. ELSBACHcjhn.caRead automatically; may contain mistakes.

Harvested

2026-10-17T20:12:41Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2021_11_04.jpg