The Pinkus family were textile manufacturers. The factory in Neustadt, Upper Silesia (now Prudnik, Poland), was one of the largest producers of fine linens in the world. Joseph Pinkus became a partner in the firm S. Fränkel when he married Auguste Fränkel, the daughter of the owner. Their son Max Pinkus (1857-1934) was director until 1926. Their daughter Hedwig married Paul Ehrlich, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1908.
Max Pinkus was a noted patron of the arts and literature and of commercial, political, and civic life in Neustadt and Upper Silesia generally. He was noted for amassing a large library of books by Silesian authors, both known and obscure, as well as several document collections pertaining to Silesian history. He wrote manuscripts on these topics and on the textile trade in Silesia. His library was eventually dispersed to different repositories within Silesia after its confiscation by the Nazis in the late 1930s. Attesting to the importance of Max Pinkus to cultural affairs in Silesia are his relationships with Gerhart Hauptmann, Hermann Stehr, and many other notable figures. Stehr dedicated the story Der Geigenmacher to Pinkus; Hauptmann was present at Max Pinkus's funeral in 1934 and reportedly modeled the protagonists of Vor Sonnenuntergang and Die Finsternisse after Pinkus.
Max Pinkus's son Hans Pinkus (1891-1977) managed the family company from 1926-1938 until he was forced out after the company's total aryanization in the wake of Kristallnacht. During the period from 1934-1938 he had successfully defended his family's interest in the company against an increasingly hostile board, which had been introducd after the company went public in 1934. Hans Pinkus, like his father, was very active in civic and cultural affairs, notably as an advocate for former prisoners of war. He had spent part of the first World War in internment camps for prisoners of war in France and Switzerland. Like his father, he was interested in local history, and he devoted much of his spare time to genealogical research. Hans Pinkus was able to remain in Germany until a relatively late date, but owing to the increasingly hostile climate he left Germany at the end of 1938 and emigrated to the United Kingdom with his family in 1939. During the 1950s, he unsuccessfully attempted to rebuild the firm in Bavaria, and he died in Britain in 1977.
From the guide to the Pinkus Family Collection, 1500s-1994, bulk 1725-1994, (Leo Baeck Institute)
