obituary
Banker and “philanthropist”: Friedrich von Metzler is dead
He got to know the business early on and was the face of a traditional bank: Friedrich von Metzler is known far beyond Frankfurt. He has now died at the age of 81.
A patron? No, that’s not how Friedrich von Metzler wanted to be understood, even though the banker left his mark with generous donations in many places in the city of Frankfurt: Städel, Senckenberg, University. “We are designers. We like to design. If we see that something is necessary or something would be great, then we are happy to take part,” said von Metzler to the German Press Agency on the occasion of his 75th birthday on April 23, 2018. Now the popular banker von Metzler, who ran the bank of the same name for many years, has died at the age of 81.
Early on, Frankfurt gave the Dresden native (“I always felt like a true Frankfurter”) a special honor: he became an honorary citizen. “When I became an honorary citizen at the age of 61, people asked me: “Oh, are you already 80?” I was of course happy that the city was smart enough to make me responsible for Frankfurt at a relatively young age to do,” he said later.
However, von Metzler, whom they simply called “FM” at the bank, wasn’t looking for the big stage: “We don’t want to show off our money. I grew up absolutely normal and modest together with my older sister. I couldn’t even imagine Spending a lot of money on items like a watch or a car.”
Citizen by conviction, banker by tradition: The family has been in business since 1674, the B. Metzler seel bank. Sohn & Co. is the oldest private bank in Germany in continuous family ownership. Von Metzler remembered that his father often talked about the bank at lunch. “It was particularly revealing when he was angry about something; you learned a lot.”
After school, the young Friedrich von Metzler scurried through the thickly carpeted hallways, past Biedermeier furniture and oil paintings with portraits of his ancestors. “We lived on the 6th floor of the bank, and when I came home from school, I often went to the offices. I went to my uncle, my aunt, my father, but also to non-family members, and had them explain to me what they were doing,” he recalled.
Educated in the UK, USA and France
He also read the business section of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” as a high school student “with great pleasure and interest.” “That’s why I knew at school that I would really enjoy working in the bank later.”
Trained in the 1960s primarily at investment and credit banks in Great Britain, the USA and France, von Metzler joined the Metzler Bank in 1969 and became a personally liable partner of the institute in 1971, which conducted its business in, among other things, private asset management and pension management company makes.
Just as passionately as they are about culture and social projects – such as scholarships for job-seeking academics from southern Europe through the Metzler Foundation – the family supports the financial center of Frankfurt. In the 1980s and 1990s, Friedrich von Metzler played a key role in the transformation of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange into Deutsche Börse AG, and later sat on the group’s supervisory board for a long time.
Youngest son kidnapped and murdered
Von Metzler and his wife Sylvia did not isolate themselves after the kidnapping and murder of their youngest son Jakob (11) in the fall of 2002. Many admire the dignity with which the banking family endured and endures the suffering that was repeatedly stirred up by the child murderer’s various complaints. The family did not comment publicly on the crime. However, a personal concern for her was the ZDF film adaptation “The Jakob von Metzler Case”, which was broadcast on the tenth anniversary: to show how committed the police were – including a controversial threat of torture against the murderer.
Wherever he appeared in recent years, Friedrich von Metzler was seen smiling. A merchant who described himself as a “philanthropist”, was a good listener, liked to laugh and enjoyed – for example the in-house “Metzler smoked tea” from a gold-rimmed cup with an embossed “M”.
It was easy for him to answer where he got his life energy from: “The most important things in life are a wife, children and a job. If all of that is right, then the strength will follow.” Friedrich von Metzler had already retired from day-to-day business at the bank years ago; his son and daughter now work at the bank. On his 75th, von Metzler said: “If I’m no longer there tomorrow, the bank will continue to operate as normal.”
dpa
Source: Stern
