FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A patron of the arts? No, that's not how Friedrich von Metzler wanted to be understood, although the banker left his mark on many parts of the city of Frankfurt with generous donations: Städel, Senckenberg, University. "We are designers. We like to design. If we see that something is necessary or something would be great, then we are happy to get involved," von Metzler told the German Press Agency on the occasion of his 75th birthday on April 23, 2018. Now the popular banker von Metzler, who ran the bank of the same name for many years, has died at the age of 81.

Frankfurt bestowed a special honor on the Dresden-born banker ("I always felt like a true Frankfurt native") early on: He became an honorary citizen. "When I became an honorary citizen at the age of 61, people asked me: "Oh, are you 80 already?" Of course, I was delighted that the city was clever enough to oblige me to do so much for Frankfurt while I was still relatively young," he later said.

Citizen out of conviction

However, von Metzler, whom they simply called "FM" at the bank, was not looking for the big stage: "We don't want to show off with our money. Together with my older sister, I grew up absolutely normal and modest. I couldn't even imagine spending a lot of money on things like a watch or a car."

Citizen by conviction, banker by tradition: the family has been in business since 1674, and Bankhaus B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. is the oldest private bank in Germany in uninterrupted family ownership. His father often talked about the bank over lunch, von Metzler recalled. "It was particularly revealing when he was annoyed about something, that's when you learned a lot."

After school, the young Friedrich von Metzler scurried along the corridors covered with thick carpets, past Biedermeier furniture and oil paintings with portraits of his ancestors. "We lived on the 6th floor of the bank, and when I came home from school, I often went to the offices. I went to my uncle, my aunt and my father, but also to non-family members, and had them explain to me what they did," he recalled.

Training in Great Britain, the USA and France

He also read the business section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "with great pleasure and interest" as a secondary school student. "That's why I already knew at school that I would really enjoy working in the bank later on."

Trained in the 1960s, mainly at investment and credit banks in the UK, the USA and France, von Metzler joined Bankhaus Metzler in 1969 and in 1971 became a personally liable partner of the bank, whose business includes private asset management and pension management for companies.

The family is just as passionate about culture and social projects - such as scholarships for job-seeking academics from southern Europe through the Metzler Foundation - as it is about Frankfurt as a financial center. In the 1980s and 1990s, Friedrich von Metzler played a key role in the transformation of the Frankfurt securities exchange into Deutsche Borse AG, and later sat on the Group's Supervisory Board for many years.

Youngest son abducted and murdered

Von Metzler and his wife Sylvia did not isolate themselves after the abduction and murder of their youngest son Jakob (11) in the fall of 2002. Many admire the dignity with which the banking family endured and endures the suffering repeatedly stirred up by the various complaints of the child murderer. The family did not comment publicly on the crime. However, the ZDF film "The Case of Jakob von Metzler", which was broadcast on the tenth anniversary, was of personal concern to them: to show how hard the police worked - including with a controversial threat of torture against the murderer.

Wherever he has appeared in recent years, Friedrich von Metzler has been seen smiling. A businessman who described himself as a "philanthropist", was a good listener, loved to laugh and could enjoy himself - for example, the in-house "Metzler smoked tea" from a gold rim cup with an embossed "M".

Where he got his energy from was easy for him to answer: "The most important things in life are your wife, children and job. If all that is right, then you also have the strength." Friedrich von Metzler had already retired from the day-to-day running of the bank years ago; his son and daughter now work at the bank. On his 75th birthday, von Metzler said: "If I'm no longer here tomorrow, the bank will continue to run as normal."/ben/DP/jha