Max Warburg

Max Warburg, 1904

Max M. Warburg (5 June 1867 - 26 December 1946) was a Jewish-German-American banker and was, from 1910 until 1938, director of M. M. Warburg & Co. in Hamburg, Germany. Prior to his directing of the Warburg banking company, he developed apprenticeships in Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, and London. As head of that important firm, he advised Kaiser Wilhelm II prior to World War I.

In the 1930s, despite the rise of the Nazi Party, Warburg felt there was hope for the future in Germany and tried to wait out the Nazi crisis. Beginning in 1933 he served on the board of the German Reichsbank under governor Hjalmar Schacht. However, because he was Jewish, he ultimately had to sell the bank because of Nazi persecution (economic antisemitism) and emigrate in 1938 to the United States.

Max Warburg was also a member of the board of the industrial conglomerate IG Farben from its inception in 1925 until he was ousted because of his Jewishness (under Nazi laws, IG Farben would count as a 'Jewish company' and thus would face likely confiscation/seizure if Jewish board members were not removed).

Max Warburg married Alice Magnus in 1899, and together they had four daugheters and a son, Eric Warburg (1900 – 1990), founder of Warburg Pincus.

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