Lorenz Zuckermandel (18 February 1847 – 6 January 1928) was a German banker, investor, founder, and translator; among other things, of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

Born the son of a poor farmer in Bürglein, located in the district of Ansbach, he eventually became part of Berlin's financial establishment in the second half of the 19th century and joined the ranks of the bourgeoisie at the time.

Lorenz Zuckermandel's parents, Johann Friedrich and Katharina Margaretha (née Pirner), were smallholder farmers at Meckenweber in Bürglein (house No.

By virtue of his success during Germany's years of rapid industrial expansion, as a leading figure of the financial establishment Lorenz Zuckermandel was part of the bourgeoisie.

The following appeared in the obituary section of a Berlin newspaper from 7 January 1928: "Last evening, after a short illness, banker Lorenz Zuckermandel – former business owner of C. Schlesinger-Trier & Cie., a partnership limited by shares – passed away at the age of 81.

With him yet another old-school personality of the financial establishment disappears, a man with an elegant disposition and most obliging kindness, who put his eminent skills particularly at the service of the industry.

For many years, he was a member of the supervisory board of a large number of the most important industrial companies, until he retired from his business life after he had lost both of his promising older sons in the war.

Since Lorenz Zuckermandel always acted in the name and for the account of the C. Schlesinger-Trier & Cie. bank, keeping himself in the background as an intermediary, his activities as a banker are difficult to trace.

As a token of appreciation, Sir Thomas George Shaughnessy (1853–1923) CPR's former president, invited Lorenz in 1913 on a weeks long trip to Canada.

Due to the indisposition of his wife Elisabeth, Lorenz made the trip in the company of his son Walter and of F. I. Warschauer as representative of the Nationalbank.

[6] During this trip they met, among others, Vincent Meredith, Director of the Bank of Montreal, and Richard B. Angus, one of the founding fathers of CPR, who was 84 years old at the time.

Furthermore, Zuckermandel's financial participations or his involvement in the founding of many other railway companies are documented, e.g., the Berlin-Dresdener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft,[7] the Stadtbahnen Stettin[8] and the Schmalspur-Zahnradbahn der Achenseebahn.

Lorenz Zuckermandel's translation of Émile Mâle's work L'Art Religieux du XIIIe Siècle en France was published in 1907.

For the purpose of these translations, a veritable Dante library was set up in Bendlerstrasse 33, the material occupying the billiard table in the study room for many years.

Despite his meteoric career, Lorenz Zuckermandel maintained ties to his home village of Bürglein, which he visited until 1919 and where he was known and respected as a philanthropist, although he did not communicate about his background, neither privately nor publicly – not even to his family.

Lorenz Zuckermandel also did a lot for Bürglein's water supply system, for which he donated considerable sums on multiple occasions – a total of 14,000 Reichsmarks from 1912 to 1919.

Since the citizens of Bürglein could not agree on the construction of a water pipe, the money donated lost all of its value due to the inflation that was setting in (in 1924, 1 billion was worth 1 goldmark).

[10] In accordance with a declaration of intent by Lorenz Zuckermandel dated 8 August 1917, a relief fund for the poor was founded as an annex to the Heding’schen Gedächtnis- und Armenstiftung (Heding’sche memorial and poverty foundation) on condition that the interest yielded by the 4,000 Reichsmarks donation would be distributed among the needy in the community of Bürglein on a yearly basis.

Having a great appreciation for the arts, Lorenz began to amass a considerable collection of paintings long before the young Zuckermandel couple moved into the villa in Charlottenburg.

Some of these paintings – together with other sculptures, antiques, ceramics, bronzes, furniture and fixtures – were sold at an auction of Lorenz Zuckermandel's estate at the Hugo Helbing galerie in Munich on 5–6 June 1930.

An homme de vie who knows – or correctly assumes – everything.”[13] Both of Lorenz Zuckermandel's oldest sons, Walter and Erich, fell at Lake Narocz in Russia on 1 October 1915.