Jacob Schapiro - Villa 'Gabi Nora' / today Villa Capravi

Jacob Schapiro – Villa ‚Gabi Nora‘

Jacob Schapiro (b. November 6 1885 in Odessa; d. April 17 1942 in New York) was a Jewish car dealer, cab entrepreneur and stock speculator in Berlin. For a time, he was the largest car dealer in Germany.

The villa on the beach promenade was built around 1910 in the colonial style of German West Africa. The villa bore the name of his daughter ‚Gabi Nora‘ until 1936.

Jacob Schapiro was forced to sell the villa due to Nazi reprisals.

Gustav Kühl, director of the Heringsdorf savings bank, took advantage of the unique opportunity in 1936 and bought the ‚aryanized‘ villa at a price below its market value. From then on, it bore the surname of his wife ‚Villa Ilse‘.

Jacob Schapiro and his wife fled persecution by the National Socialists to Paris in 1938 and to the United States in 1940. Jacob Schapiro died there in New York in 1942.

Georg Leo von Caprivi – Reich Chancellor and Prussian Minister President 1890-1892 – is the namesake of today's villa.