Georg Manasse

As chief executive officer of the store, Georg Manasse belonged to the closest confidants of the brothers Simon and Salman Schocken and was a primary aide in the successful development of the Schocken department store chain of Zwickau (Saxony). A staunch social democrat and pacifist, Manasse joined the German League for Human Rights early on and played a leading role in Saxony from 1923 onwards. The doctor Karl Eskuchen, Rabbi Fritz Leopold Steinthal and the siblings Anna und Hans Siemsen belonged to his closest friends. Manasse was also connected to the later Minister-President of Saxony, Max Seydewitz, the Rabbi Leo Baeck, the writer Joachim Ringelnatz, and the sculptor Renée Sintenis, as well as to the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. As a native of the city of Zwickau, he became involved in helping the resident Jews and was, as a member of the board of the Israelite Religious Community, responsible for questions relating to the budget and taxes. He emigrated to Sweden in the summer of 1935 before finding a new home in the US in late 1940.