Max Warburg

Max Warburg, 1904

Max M. Warburg (5 June 1867 – 26 December 1946) was a German-born American banker and 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 firm, he advised Kaiser Wilhelm II prior to World War I.

His brother Paul Warburg was the chief architect of the Federal Reserve Board in the United States.

On December 12, 1918, the United States Naval Secret Service Report on Mr. Warburg was as follows:

"WARBURG, PAUL: New York City. German, naturalized citizen, 1911. was decorated by the Kaiser in 1912, was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Handled large sums furnished by Germany for Lenin and Trotsky. Has a brother who is leader of the espionage system of Germany."

This report, which must have been compiled much earlier, while the United States was at war with Germany, is not dated until December 12, 1918. AFTER the Armistice had been signed. Also, it does not contain the information that Paul Warburg resigned from the Federal Reserve Board in May, 1918, which indicates that it was compiled before May, 1918, when Paul Warburg would theoretically have been open to a charge of treason because of his brother's control of Germany's Secret Service.

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. He sold the bank because of Nazi persecution and emigrated to the United States in 1938.

Max Warburg married Alice Magnus in 1899, and together they had four daughters and a son, Eric Warburg (1900—1990), founder of E.M. Warburg & Co, later known as Warburg Pincus.