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Benno Brahn

Benno Brahn was a business contact of Otto Frank.

Person

  • Benno Benjamin Adolf Brahn
  • Born on: June 22, 1877
  • Born in: Laurahütte, Duitsland
  • Died on: Aug. 4, 1954
  • Died in: Amsterdam, Nederland

Benno Brahn had a doctorate in natural sciences and as such co-inventor of Tetenal, a concentrate for developing black and white films. He was also a chemist at the Institut für Krebsforschung of the Charité hospital in Berlin.[1]

Brahn was married in Berlin in 1921 to a much younger, non-Jewish woman: Eugenie von der Osten-Sacken (1894-1979).[2] Their son Konrad was born on 9 March 1922.[3] In 1934, the Brahns fled to the Netherlands.[4] Once in Amsterdam, they lived briefly in a boarding house in Vondelstraat, but soon moved into a house in Paulus Potterstraat.[3] Son Konrad went to the Barlaeus Gymnasium and had Willem Frederik Hermans as a classmate for one year.[5] In the same year, but not in the same class, was Hidde Heringa.[6] He wrote about Konrad's father: "Brahn Sr. is a very kind, sensitive, gentle man, as is his wife, and they are like two balls of wax melted together.”[3]

In August 1934 Brahn founded Sangostop, a company that manufactured and traded in haemostatics and other chemical and pharmaceutical products.[7]  In 1939 he became a supervisory director and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board of Sangostop.[4] Opekta, Otto Frank's firm, did business with Sangostop. Otto Frank had noted Brahn's phone number in his diaries from 1937 and 1946 to 1952.[8]

On 28 April 1937, Brahn applied for a patent in the United States on the use of pectin in the administration of insulin by diabetics.[9] On 20 February 1945, Canada also registered a patent for an insulin application, which Brahn invented, and which was owned by Thelopharm.[10] Thelopharm was a sister company of Sangostop, of which Brahn's older brother Max was director in the 1930s.

Brahn's marriage to a non-Jewish woman earned him the protected status of mixed-marriage during the German occupation and unlike Max, who was murdered in Auschwitz, he survived the war.

After finishing the Barlaeus,[11] Konrad Brahn went to study law. During the German occupation he clandestinely took the kandidaats examination. The doctoral examination did not follow until the early 1960s. After several academic appointments, he was appointed professor of civil law at the Groningen University in 1980. He retired in 1987 and died in 2001.[12]

Source personal data.[2] Adressess: Fasanenstraße 58, Berlin (1931);[13] Vondelstraat 25hs, Amsterdam (May 1934), Paulus Potterstraat 28 boven (Aug. 1934), Watteaustraat 14-II (April 1941).[2]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Gustav Wagner, Andrea Mauerberger, Krebsforschung in Deutschland: Vorgeschichte und Geschichte des Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum, Berlin [etc.} Springer-Verlag, 1989, p. 22; Peter Voswinckel, Erinnerungsort Krebsbaracke: Klarstellungen um das erste interdisziplinäre Krebsforschungsinstitut in Deutschland (Berlin, Charité), Berlin, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hämatologie und Medizinische Onkologie e. V., 2014, p. 54.
  2. a, b, c Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Dienst Bevolkingsregister; Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart B.B.A. Brahn.
  3. a, b, c Willem Otterspeer, De mislukkingskunstenaar, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2013, p. 245.
  4. a, b “Handelsregister. Wijzigingen November 1939”, Pharmaceutisch Weekblad. Orgaan van de Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter bevordering van de Pharmacie, 6 januari 1940.
  5. ^ Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995), prozaschrijver, columnist en essayist. Wikipedia: Willem Frederik Hermans.
  6. ^ Hidde Heringa (1921-2003), een inmiddels vergeten prozaschrijver, en vriend van W.F. Hermans.
  7. ^ Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Kamer van Koophandel Delft, Handelsregister 1921 – 1995 (toegang 3.17.19), inv. nr. 508, dossier 16118.
  8. ^ Anne Frank Stichting, Anne Frank Collectie, Otto Frank Archief, reg. codes OFA_001 en 003 t/m 009.
  9. ^ US Patent Office, Patent 2.294.016.
  10. ^ Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Patent 425759 Summary.
  11. ^ Hij slaagde in juni 1941 voor zijn eindexamen. 'Schoolnieuws', De Nederlander, 21 juni 1941.
  12. ^ H.C.F. Schoordijk, Prof. mr. O.K. (Konrad) Brahn (1922-2001) en zijn ‘zwaartepunten’, Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Nederlands Burgerlijk Recht, jrg. 10, nr 19 (december 2002), p. 522-524.
  13. ^ Jüdisches Adressbuch für Gross-Berlin, Ausgabe 1931, Berlin: arani-Verlag GmbH, 1994, p. 45.