MR. GUILLERMO SUNDHEIM
At eight o’clock in the morning on the 7th of the present month, there passed away in Huelva Don Guillermo Sundheim, German by birth, Spanish at heart, an illustrious figure in national industry, a most distinguished and correct writer in our tongue, and a man, in short, endowed with such rare and exceptional qualities of goodness, rectitude, and diligence, that there shall surely be none to exceed him and few indeed who might equal him.
To us, the death of this great Spanish patriot—for so we must consider him for the beautiful works with which his initiative honored our country—has caused a most profound impression, a very great bitterness, and a most sincere mourning. We were unaware of how ill he was when we received the news of his passing, which surprised us whilst we were writing to him, precisely regarding the various matters he had recently been pursuing for the promotion of Huelva’s industries. We loved him dearly; we were bound to him by the admiration caused by the exemplary balance of so many outstanding aptitudes and so many gifts of modesty and simplicity treasured by that spirit, as fertile and tireless in labor as it was in charity. We loved him with filial affection, and his loss is for us truly very bitter, immense, and irreparable, like that of a most kindly father whose existence leaves upon his children an indelible mark of the love he knew how to inspire.
Because, aside from advice and deference, Sundheim was one of the first protectors of this Review, one of its most determined supporters, one of its most brilliant writers, and one of its warmest propagandists. Don Guillermo—as all his friends called him—penned many abundant pages, and at times entire issues of this newspaper; mining, agriculture, commerce, industry, politics, arts, international questions, judgments upon our governors, critiques of parliamentary speeches… in all these matters that most prolific intellectual worker gave an astonishing display of understanding, of extraordinary culture, of fine and always courteous irony, and, above all, of a marvelous study of the Hispanic language, which he wrote with elegance, smoothness, and perfection. We do not proclaim it now ourselves; the very works of Sundheim in the Review “España” declare it, his own signature here publishes it, and when not that, the repeated initial G., which served as his authority to sanction his writings.
He was, furthermore, an active collaborator for many Spanish, French, and German newspapers. In Spain, his talent was made known by LA PROVINCIA of Huelva, “La Época”, “La Monarquía”, “El Día” and other publications; in France, “Le Temps” especially; and in England, the “Standard” and “The Times”. Sundheim possessed, therefore, in the Spanish press and the European press, a personality intimately ours, and for us the most important and salient, because he utilized it without rest for the honor and benefit of our fatherland—a reality not very common, if not greatly exceptional, for we suffer more from the neglect and grievances of foreigners settled on Spanish soil than from their favor or justice.
The daily newspapers have already mentioned some of the industrial enterprises created by Sundheim’s initiative or with his most effective support. Unforgettable is the foundation, established with the illustrious Enrique Doetsch, of the Rio Tinto Mining Company; unforgettable also is the construction of the line from Seville to Huelva, and there must likewise be recorded with praise for his memory the no less important railway work of Zafra-Huelva, carried out with his support and personal labor. We know not if the State has shown gratitude, with grace or with honor, for these beneficent and civilizing tasks of Spanish industrial-railway enlargement which have passed without an honorary mention, without a tribute of gratitude… Huelva has already rendered it to her adopted son in the supreme hour of death, for the demonstration of mourning from the cultured and beautiful Andalusian population has been grand; but, we repeat, we know not if at any time the State has informed public opinion that the generous endeavors and the realities profitable to the fatherland, which Sundheim imagined and established, have merited a reward for a surname so pleasing to Spaniards.
Our friend was a tireless miner, owner of an operation in the province of Huelva; he was a most industrious merchant, founder with Doetsch of the banking house which until recently bore the names of those two Germans who worked with such fervor for the industrial progress of Spain; and he was now, in these very days of his unexpected death, the founder and president of the society “La Azufrera”, whose management he led in the first instance, directing it with notorious skill and enduring with fortune, though not exempt from personal bitterness, the difficulties which incipient enterprises in Spain usually suffer in their relations with the Administration.
All this and much more than this was Sundheim, and Huelva shall not repay, even by consecrating a statue to him in a public place—an idea that the City Council of the capital, the Provincial Council, and the local press might embrace—the innumerable benefits he provided with the creation of industries, with the opening of iron roads, with the establishment of mercantile centers, with fishing enterprises, and with that memorable Centenary of Columbus, carried out by his effort, by his constancy, by his iron will, and by the influence he knew how to exert upon the minds of the governors of the period, against all the campaigns which, to snatch from Huelva the celebration of the festivities and the honor of receiving the Royal Family, were made desperately and in vain by certain cities, certain City Councils, and certain newspapers.
These lines are not a biography. I write them while traveling, with the urgency of time, without having at hand the correspondence of this great initiator of Hispanic enterprises and with the spirit lacking that repose required to link in an orderly fashion the events of a life so active, luminous, and exemplary. The biography of Sundheim is most copious in beautiful deeds. It shall be, when it is written, a long history to serve as a mirror for men of good will in favor of Spain. I do no more now than remember his life, weep for his death, praise his memory, increase my respect for the great man, and give with these words of mine and those of the Review “España” an account of our bitterness and of the affection we held for him.
May he rest in peace! May his goodness find imitators, his talent find successors, his endeavors find continuators; may there be many great, loving, upright, and generous souls like his own to work for Huelva and for Spain, for wealth, for the laborers, for the national industries, and that region and our fatherland shall be worthy of the admiration of all—the supreme aspiration that guided the life of Sundheim in the forty years he remained upon our Spanish soil.
This Review sends to the children of Don Guillermo Sundheim the testimony of its condolences. They already know our grief.
LUIS SOLER.
(As published in La Provincia)
