Adolph Salomonsohn


Adolph Salomonsohn was a German lawyer and banker. He was a proprietor of the Disconto-Gesellschaft and influenced the establishment of the stock market in Germany.

Biography

Salomonsohn was born in Inowrazlaw, Prussian Province of Posen to Gedalia Salomonsen, a merchant born in Copenhagen, and Ernestine, a native of Inowrazlaw. His grandfather, Salomon Abraham Gedalia, was a rabbi in Copenhagen.
Salomonson attended school in Bromberg. After studying law he worked at the local court in Berlin. He rejected David Hansemann's offer to work for the Disconto-Gesellschaft in Berlin and instead started to practice as a lawyer and notary in Ratibor. After being publicly insulted by the Prussian minister of justice, Leopold zur Lippe-Biesterfeld-Weißenfeld, Salomonsohn closed his law office to return to Berlin and started to work for the Disconto-Gesellschaft in 1863. He was given procuration in 1866 and became proprietor in 1869.
In 1868 he married Sara Rinkel from Landeshut, Silesia ; they had three daughters and one son, Georg, who also became a banker.
Next to Adolph von Hansemann Salomonsohn was influential in the nascent stock market activities in German banking. He was especially active in the funding of the Gotthard railway and remained a member of the administrative board of the Gotthard railway society until 1909. Salomonsohn was also a member of the administrative board of the Norddeutsche Bank, the "Union AG für Bergbau", the potash works Aschersleben and the "Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG", whose director Emil Kirdorf was a close friend.
Salomonsohn retired from the active management of the Disconto-Gesellschaft in 1888 but remained a member of the supervisory board until his death on 4 January 1919 in Berlin.