Warburg family: Difference between revisions
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*{{cite book | author=Klessmann, Eckart | title=M.M.Warburg & CO 1798—1998: Die Geschichte des Bankhauses | location=Hamburg | year=2004}} |
*{{cite book | author=Klessmann, Eckart | title=M.M.Warburg & CO 1798—1998: Die Geschichte des Bankhauses | location=Hamburg | year=2004}} |
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*{{cite book | author=[[Chernow, Ron]] | title=The Warburgs: The Twentieth-century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family | publisher=[[Random House]] | location=New York | year=1993 | isbn=0-679-41823-7}} |
*{{cite book | author=[[Chernow, Ron]] | title=The Warburgs: The Twentieth-century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family | publisher=[[Random House]] | location=New York | year=1993 | isbn=0-679-41823-7}} |
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*{{cite book | |
*{{cite book | author=[[Attali, Jacques]] | title=A Man of Influence: The Extraordinary Career of S.G. Warburg | publisher=[[Adler & Adler]] | location=Bethesda, MD | year=1985 | isbn=0-917561-36-8}} |
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*{{cite book | author=Farrer, David | title=The Warburgs: The Story of a Family | publisher=[[Stein and Day]] | location=New York | year=1974 | isbn=0-8128-1733-8}} |
*{{cite book | author=Farrer, David | title=The Warburgs: The Story of a Family | publisher=[[Stein and Day]] | location=New York | year=1974 | isbn=0-8128-1733-8}} |
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*{{cite book | author=Rosenbaum, Eduard | title=M.M.Warburg & CO, Merchant Bankers of Hamburg; A Survey of the First 140 years, 1798 to 1938 | location=London | year=1962}} |
*{{cite book | author=Rosenbaum, Eduard | title=M.M.Warburg & CO, Merchant Bankers of Hamburg; A Survey of the First 140 years, 1798 to 1938 | location=London | year=1962}} |
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Revision as of 16:41, 30 March 2013
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2012) |
The Warburg family is a prominent family and financial dynasty of German Jewish descent, noted for their varied accomplishments in physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy. They are believed to be descended from the Venetian Jewish del Banco family, in the early 1500s one of the wealthiest Venetian families.[citation needed] The Warburgs fled from Italy to Warburg in Germany in the 16th century before moving to Altona, near Hamburg in the 17th century. They took their surname from the city of Warburg. The brothers Moses Marcus Warburg (1763 - 1830) and Gerson Warburg (1765 - 1826) founded the M. M. Warburg & Co. banking company in 1798 that is still in existence. Moses Warburg's great-great grandson, Siegmund George Warburg, founded the investment bank S. G. Warburg & Co in London in 1946. Siegmund's second cousin, Eric Warburg, founded Warburg Pincus in New York in 1938. Eric Warburg's son Max Warburg (not to be confused with Eric's father Max Warburg) is currently one of the three partners of M.M.Warburg & Co., Warburg. The Warburg family created the following investment banks: M.M.Warburg & Co., Warburg Pincus, S. G. Warburg & Co.. Max Warburg's elder brother Aby Warburg used his money to establish the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg, since 1934 The Warburg Institute in London. Paul Warburg is most famous as the architect of the US monetary regime, the Federal Reserve System established in 1913.
Family organization
Alsterufer and Mittelweg lines
The family is traditionally divided into two prominent lines, the Alsterufer Warburgs and the Mittelweg Warburgs. The Alsterufer Warburgs descended from Siegmund Warburg (1835–1889) and the Mittelweg Warburgs descended from his brother Moritz M. Warburg (1838–1910). They took their nicknames from the brothers' respective addresses in Hamburg. The brothers were grandsons of Moses Marcus Warburg.
Siegmund George Warburg was of the Alsterufer line; the five brothers Abraham (Aby) M., Max M., Paul M., Felix M. and Fritz Moritz Warburg were of the Mittelweg line.
American and German Warburgs
Felix and Paul Warburg emigrated to the United States. Felix Warburg married Frieda Schiff, daughter of Jacob H. Schiff, a banker and philanthropist. Felix Warburg's house in New York City is now the Jewish Museum. His brother Paul married Nina Loeb, daughter of Solomon Loeb. He is seen as the "father" of the U.S. Federal Reserve System.
Beginning in 1933, Max Warburg served directly under Hjalmar Schacht on the board of the Reichsbank, under the Nazi regime, before emigrating in 1938.
Max Warburg served on the board of directors of Interessen Gemeinschaft Farben or I.G. Farben, the giant German chemical firm that produced Zyklon B gas used in Nazi extermination camps. His brother Paul Warburg served on the board of directors of I.G. Farben's wholly owned American subsidiary. (However, Paul Warburg died in January 1932, before Hitler was elected Chancellor.) The Kilgore Committee Report of 1942 indicated that all I.G. Farben board members had precise and prior knowledge that Zyklon B was being used to murder civilians in concentration camps, with no attempt made to halt production of the gas after such murders were understood. I.G. Farben was crucially instrumental in funding the rise to power of the Nazi Party, and also in building up the industrial and war-making capabilities of Germany once the Nazis were in power while simultaneously attempting to restrict industrial production materials to countries marked for invasion by Nazi Germany, all of this to such a degree that all German board members other than Max Warburg were charged after World War II as war criminals.[1]
Virtually all members of the German Warburg family had fled to the United States or Great Britain by 1938. However, two cousins, mother and daughter Gerta and Betty Warburg, stayed in Altona. They were murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp in 1940.[2] Eric Warburg, son of Max Warburg, returned to Germany and was influential in restoring Germany's reputation after the Second World War. Eric's son, also called Max, is currently a partner in M.M. Warburg & CO. in Hamburg.
Venetian origins
The Warburg family had settled in Venice, at which point they bore the surname del-Banco. The historical documents describe Anselmo del Banco as Jewish and as having been one of the wealthiest residents of Venice in the early 1500s. In 1513, del Banco was granted a charter by the Venetian government permitting the lending of money with interest. Del Banco left with his family after new restrictions were placed upon the Jewish community coinciding with the establishment of a Ghetto. The family settled in the German town of Warburg, and adopted that town's name as their own surname.[3]
Noteworthy members and institutions
- Anselmo del Banco (Asher Meshullam) (-1532), moneylender
- Moritz Warburg (1810–1886), jurist
- Moses Marcus Warburg (-1830), founder, with his brother Gerson Warburg, of M. M. Warburg & Co.
- Max M(oritz) Warburg (1867–1946), Hamburg banker, great-grandson of Moses Marcus Warburg (of the "Mittelweg" line of Warburgs)
- Abraham M(oritz) Warburg (1866–1929), German art historian, brother to Max, Paul, Felix, Olga, Fritz and Louisa Warburg.
- Paul M(oritz) Warburg (1868–1932), father of the Federal Reserve. Married Nina Loeb (1863–1912) in 1895, the daughter of Solomon Loeb. Son: James P. Warburg.
- James Warburg (1897–1969), son of Paul M. Warburg, advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early days of the Brain Trust, American delegate to the London Economic Conference, economist, banker, and author of lyrics (using the pen name Paul James) to a 1930 hit Broadway musical, Fine and Dandy.
- Felix M(oritz) Warburg (1871–1937), New York banker with Kuhn, Loeb & Co., philanthropist, Married Frieda Schiff (1876–1958), daughter to Jacob H. Schiff in 1895.
- Edward M. M. Warburg. (1908–1992) Youngest son of Felix and Frieda. Philanthropist and benefactor of the arts. Founding father of the American Ballet, precursor of the New York City Ballet, and the American School of Ballet. Also founding father of MoMa. National chairman of the United Jewish Appeal from 1950 to 1955, president of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, and a member of the New York State Board of Regents from 1958 to 1975
- Gerald Felix Warburg, son of Frieda and Felix, well-known cellist and conductor and son-in-law of publisher Condé Nast
- Eric Warburg (1900–1990), banker and goodwill ambassador, son of Max M. Warburg, namesake of the Eric M. Warburg Prize
- Siegmund George Warburg (1902–1982), founder of S. G. Warburg & Co, London, great great grandson of Moses Marcus Warburg (of the "Alsterufer" line of Warburgs)
- M. M. Warburg & Co., bank in Hamburg founded by Moses Marcus Warburg and Gerson Warburg
- Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, now the Warburg Institute, London, founded by Aby Warburg in Hamburg
- Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, founded by Eric Warburg
- S. G. Warburg & Co., London investment bank founded by Siegmund George Warburg
- Katharine Weber. (1955 - ), novelist, granddaughter of James Warburg
- Jane Green Warburg. (1968 - ) Writes as Jane Green. Author, philanthropist. Married to Ian Warburg, grandson of Edward M. M. Warburg.
- Scientists
- Carl Warburg (c. 1805-1892), clinical pharmacologist
- Emil Warburg, (1846–1931), German physicist
- Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883–1970), physiologist and biochemist (Nobel prize in Medicine, 1931)
- Otto Warburg (1859–1938), botanist and president of the Zionist Organisation
Works about Warburgs
- Klessmann, Eckart (2004). M.M.Warburg & CO 1798—1998: Die Geschichte des Bankhauses. Hamburg.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Chernow, Ron (1993). The Warburgs: The Twentieth-century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-41823-7.
- Attali, Jacques (1985). A Man of Influence: The Extraordinary Career of S.G. Warburg. Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler. ISBN 0-917561-36-8.
- Farrer, David (1974). The Warburgs: The Story of a Family. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8128-1733-8.
- Rosenbaum, Eduard (1962). M.M.Warburg & CO, Merchant Bankers of Hamburg; A Survey of the First 140 years, 1798 to 1938. London.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Niall Ferguson (2010). High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. New York: Penguin Press HC, The. ISBN 978-1-59420-246-9.
See also
- UBS Warburg
- M. M. Warburg & Co.
- Warburg Pincus
- S. G. Warburg & Co.
- Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
- Warburg Institute
- Rothschild family
References
- ^ Antony C. Sutton (2010). "The Empire of I.G. Farben". Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. Clairview Books. pp. 33–37. ISBN 978-1-905570-27-0. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
- ^ Ron Chernow, The Warburgs (Vantage: 1993)
- ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/3218851
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia article (1901–1906)
- Irving Katz's review of The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family by Ron Chernow
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
