Tel Aviv University has announced the death of Josef Buchmann, the Frankfurt property developer and philanthropist who co-founded the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music with conductor Zubin Mehta. He was 95.

Buchmann built his career in German real estate, becoming a property developer in Frankfurt. He used that fortune to become, in the university's assessment, a considerable philanthropist in Germany.

His giving reached across the sciences as well as the arts. Among many other institutions, he endowed the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences at the Goethe University of Frankfurt.

His life spanned the darkest chapter of European history. As a child, he survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his parents were murdered.

The school that carries his name stands as his most visible musical legacy. Founded jointly with Mehta, the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University has trained generations of Israeli musicians and links the university's training orchestra closely with the Israel Philharmonic, which Mehta led for decades.

Buchmann's death closes a life that ran from Auschwitz to the heart of German and Israeli cultural philanthropy, and the institution he co-founded will carry his name into its next generation of students.