Background
He is not to be confused with his uncle, the banker Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was the son of his grandfather Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
He is not to be confused with his uncle, the banker Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was the son of his grandfather Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
He studied sciences at Heidelberg University, where Robert Bunsen was amongst his colleagues.
He co-founded the Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation (AGFA), a German chemical company. Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy was the second son of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud. After graduating in 1863 he went to Berlin to study with Wilhelm Hoffmann.
He volunteered as a soldier in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, taking part in the Battle of Königgrätz and becoming an officer
After the Austro-Prussian War he met with Alexander Martius, a former student of Justus von Liebig, who had set up a dye factory in England. They decided to enter a partnership to manufacture aniline in Germany, setting up a factory at the Rummelsburg Lake near Berlin.
In 1873 the firm took the name "Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation", becoming in 1898 "AGFA". Paul later married Elisabeth"s sister Enole (1855–1939), by whom he had four children.
In 1880, Mendelssohn Bartholdy died of a heart attack.
In 1925, it became part of IG Farben.