BarhamHistory.com

Calmon

Curt Calmon


Curt and Margarete

Curt Calmon was born on 24th August 1884 in Kyritz, Germany. His early education was in Kyritz, following which he went to university in Freiberg, Berlin, Munich and Heidelberg. He studied law and economics, becoming a Doctor of Law in 1906 and worked as a solicitor at the High Court in Berlin until October 1911, when he joined the Darmstaedter Bank of Berlin.

 

On 25th December 1913 he married Margrete Winternitz, the youngest daughter of Sigmund Winternitz, Chairman of the Prague Stock Exchange.

 

He served in the German Army from 1915 to 1918 after which he returned to the bank, becoming a director in 1921. From 1921 to 1933 he acted as legal adviser to the big Berlin banks and took on many industrial and trade directorships, including the Bata Shoe Company.

 

In 1933, when Hitler came to power, he was forced to leave Germany.  This was possibly on the advice of a senior Nazi, perhaps Hermann Goering.  He went to Czechoslovakia where he was appointed legal and economic adviser at the head office of the Bata Shoe Company in Zlin.

 

On 1st January 1936 he was appointed export manager of the British Bata Shoe Company at Tilbury and came to work in England later that year. In July 1937 he was appointed managing director and financial and economic adviser of the Omnipol Trading and Shipping Co. Ltd., which was controlled by the Czech government. At the same time, he was economic adviser to Industrial Facilities Corporation Ltd., which was engaged in negotiating trade agreements to combat the barter system of trade by which Germany imported raw materials.  However, after the occupation of Prague in 1939, he resigned from these positions and became manager in the export department of Mercantile Overseas Trust Ltd., exporters and general agents.

 

In September 1939 according to the England and Wales Register, he was living at 34, Ferncroft Avenue, London NW3, together with his wife, son Claude and sister-in-law Malvina Kompert.  His daughter, Claudia, was at boarding school in Devon. He later purchased and moved to 14, Ferncroft Avenue.

 

He suffered a period of severe illness in June 1944 (probably a stroke) and ceased his business activities while he recuperated, but by April 1945 he had made a sufficient recovery to be appointed manager of the export department of the Anglo-Mercantile Co. Ltd.

 

He died on 16th January 1948 of pulmonary oedema, with cerebral thrombosis cited as a contributory factor.