Reisinger, Hugo

Merchant, patron of the arts

born: 29.01.1856 in Wiesbaden

died: 27.09.1914 in Bad Schwalbach

Reisinger, the son of Franz Reisinger, received business training in Germany, England, and the United States. In 1883, he traveled to America on behalf of Siemens-Glaswerke in Dresden. He lived in various cities in both the U.S. and Canada until he finally settled in New York in 1886 and founded an import-export company. In 1890, he married a wealthy daughter of Adolphus Busch, the co-founder of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. As his mother’s niece, she was also his cousin.

In addition to his business activities, Reisinger was an art collector and patron. He organized and financed exhibitions of German art in New York, Boston, and Chicago, as well as exhibitions of American art in Berlin and Munich. The “Busch Reisinger Museum” in Boston was established on the initiative of Reisinger and his father-in-law.

In 1913, he donated $25,000 for a fountain in front of Wiesbaden’s main train station. Thanks to this donation and the funds raised over the years by the Wiesbaden “Reisinger Foundation,” construction was finally able to begin in 1931. The centerpiece of the Reisinger and Herbert complexes, which were inaugurated in 1932, is a series of leaping water jets, intended as a symbol of Wiesbaden’s healing springs.

Reisinger was a distinguished facilitator of cultural exchange between Germany and the United States. He passed away during a spa stay at “Villa Lilly,” the residence built by his father-in-law in Lindschied near Bad Schwalbach.