Leopold Koppel

Geheimrat Leopold Koppel (20 October 1843 in Dresden – 29 August 1933 in Berlin) was a German banker and entrepreneur. He founded the private banking house Koppel und Co., the industrial firms Auergesellschaft and OSRAM, and the philanthropic foundation the Koppel-Stiftung. He was a Senator in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. An endowment he made in 1911 resulted in the founding of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie, and endowments from him led to the founding of and support of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institut für Physik. He was a target of the Third Reich’s policy of Arisierung – the Aryanization of German businesses, which began in 1933.

Koppel was a Jewish banker and entrepreneur. In recognition of his contributions to German commerce, he was given the title Geheimer Kommerzienrat (Privy Councillor of Commerce), or, in short, Geheimrat.

In 1890, Koppel opened his private banking house Koppel und Co.

In 1892, with the Austrian chemist and inventor Carl Auer von Welsbach, Koppel founded the Deutsche Gasglühlichtgesellschaft-Aktiengesellschaft (Degea or DGA, German Gas Light Company), the forerunner of Auergesellschaft. Koppel was the controlling owner. In 1906, DGA developed the OSRAM light bulb; its name was formed from the German words OSmium, for the element osmium, and WolfRAM, for the element tungsten. As the owner of the OSRAM trademark, Koppel separated the light bulb manufacturing from DGA in 1918, forming the OSRAM Werke GmbH, after which the new company was converted into a Kommanditgesellschaft (limited partnership), with DGA as the limited partner. Since Koppel was the majority shareholder in DGA, he thus became the chief partner in the new company. In February 1920, DGA merged its light bulb manufacturing with that of Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) and Siemens & Halske and they became limited partners under OSRAM G.m.b.H. KG; the start of the business year was dated retroactively to 1 July 1919. Koppel (DGA) owned 20% of the OSRAM G.m.b.H. KG stock, and the other two companies each owned 40%.

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