Friedrich Ludwig von Gans (1833-1920)

He was born into a family of Jewish merchants who'd been resident at Celle in Lower Saxony for 150-years before moving to Frankfurt in 1814 after the region revoked business licences for Jews. From 1847, his father became the sole owner of Leopold Cassella & Co., started by his great-uncle, a spice trader who became a dye wholesaler. Fritz entered the firm in the same year and eventually became the commercial director before succeeding his father in 1871. In the previous year his brother, Leo Gans, co-founded a company that manufactured synthetic dyes. In 1879, Fritz invested 5-million gold marks courtesy of his brother-in-law David Wilhelm Ettling - director of the Spanish branch of Rothschild's Bank in Madrid - and it was during this period that the factory took off. In 1894, the companies involved merged under the original name of Leopold Cassella & Co. and by 1900 it was the largest azo dye factory in the world.

Fritz was a Member of the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce and then the Royal Privy Council of Prussia. He supported several charitable institutions but after retiring devoted the most part of his time to his art collection. In 1912, he donated his collection of objets d'art to the Berlin Antiquities Collection and in return Emperor Wilhelm II raised him to the Prussian nobility after which he was styled "His Excellency Friedrich von Gans". After his death in 1920, his heirs sold most of his private collection to the art dealer Kurt Walter Bachstitz. Having become a Protestant in 1885, he is buried in the mausoleum he built in 1909 - the largest tomb in Frankfurt's main cemetery. He had a daughter and two sons.