Friedrich Ludwig von Gans

Friedrich Ludwig von Gans (15 November 1833 – 14 July 1920), born Friedrich Ludwig Gans and known as Fritz Gans, was a German industrialist, art collector and philanthropist. He helped expand Leopold Cassella & Co. from a Frankfurt family dye business into a major synthetic-dye manufacturer and served as the company's commercial director.

Gans came from a German-Jewish mercantile family, converted to Protestantism in 1885 and was raised to the Prussian nobility in 1912. In the same year he donated his antiquities collection to the Royal Museums in Berlin; later scholarship described the gift as a nucleus for the Antikensammlung. Works from his collection continue to appear in museum provenance records and art-historical scholarship.

Early life and family Gans was born in Frankfurt am Main on 15 November 1833, the son of the merchant Ludwig Aaron Gans and Rosette Goldschmidt.

In 1862 he married Augusta Ettling. They had three children: Adela "Fanny" Gans, Paul von Gans and Ludwig Wilhelm von Gans. Ludwig Wilhelm founded Pharma-Gans and became active in local politics in Oberursel. Under Nazi rule he left Germany; during the Second World War he was deported to Theresienstadt, liberated by the Swedish Red Cross, and died by suicide in Copenhagen in 1946.

Cassella and the synthetic dye industry Gans entered his father's dye business in 1847.

In 1912 Gans donated his antiquities collection to the Royal Museums in Berlin. Later scholarship has described the gift as a nucleus for the Antikensammlung in the Altes Museum.

Art-historical literature continues to cite the collection. RIHA Journal describes Gans as a Frankfurt industrialist "who built a renowned art collection" and records his acquisition of Greco-Roman gold jewellery and glass from the archaeologist Peter Mavrogordato, excavator at Olbia on the Black Sea.

In 1917 Gans gave two paintings to the Städel in Frankfurt: a portrait of Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach and a view of old Frankfurt by Anton Burger.

After his death, much of the remaining collection was sold to the dealer Kurt Walter Bachstitz. Works formerly owned by Gans later entered museum collections. The J. Paul Getty Museum lists him as a former owner of a Roman bronze figure of Luna.

Death and legacy

Gans died in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe on 14 July 1920 and was buried in Frankfurt Main Cemetery.

He had commissioned the Gans family mausoleum in 1909. Designed by Friedrich Hausmann, it was taken over by the Frankfurt Society for Cremation in 1932 and used for urn burials.