The Warburgs

by Ron Chernow

  January 21, 1993.

  Handwriting Assessment Report: S. W., Banker.

  Subject appears to be a very bright and strong individual who handles his affairs in a competent and effective manner.

  His intelligence is considerably above the average; he is cultured and effective in whatever he may be doing. He would not start an undertaking without having himself thoroughly informed about all its details, He is alert, open to suggestions which seem to fit into his program and willing to integrate them into his own activities. He will discard them as soon as he considers them unsuitable. He learns quickly and has a great capacity for distinguishing the essential from the unessential. His way of thinking is clear, logical and adaptable. He will understand other people’s viewpoints, but he is not likely to give up his own opinions. He is a mixture of flexibility and steadfastness which may not always be easy to understand and to cope with. He discards superfluous matters and tries to deal with the essentials as far as possible. He seems to have an understanding for the fact that most people are not as brilliant as he, and that he owes others explanations for his words and deeds. He possesses analyzing and particularly well developed synthesizing faculties and is particularly gifted for drawing the correct conclusions from the facts he finds. His gift of observation is well developed. He notices the smallest of details which could be important for him at the moment and fits them properly into the larger picture to which they belong. He has a rare capability: he is detail oriented in a very rational manner while at the same time, he is strongly intuitive; he senses instinctively the meaning and potential of facts. He may not be quite aware of this giftedness, but he uses it all the time, in a very useful manner. His rational sense of proportion is well developed. He possesses common sense and a good sense of proportion, and he can be systematic and methodical in his approach to a plan or project. Having a balanced judgment in the field of his knowledge and experience, he can be very critical and almost dissecting in his statements. He tries to be objective in his criticism, and while he may be harsh, he tries to be just. Most likely, due to his mental superiority, he has a clear picture of the larger and smaller aspects of a plan or a situation.

  While subject’s mental faculties are well developed, there is also emphasis on his practical and concrete tendencies and interests. However, there seems to be always a constructive balance between his intellectual and practical spheres. He is able to handle numbers and calculations, on a large scale, and usually seems to be rather conservative in using them. He has administrative abilities and should be a good organizer. Everything and everyone should have its proper place. If his arrangement is disturbed, he can become quite distressed. He is orderly and conscientious and demands the same from his co-workers. He is resourceful and possesses originality, and is enterprising and likes challenging assignments. Though possibly with some speculative aspects in his work, he is basically conservative and does not like to take uncalculated risks. He likes to make the best possible use of the material at his disposal, and he can become annoyed and possibly impatient with people who do not function according to his standards. Mechanical and routine work, he leaves to people who are temperamentally best suited for it. His gift of observation is well developed. He possesses analyzing as well as synthesizing faculties. He can dissect a problem into its elements, rearranging them into the proper order, from which he can draw new and unusual conclusions. He knows the limits of his competence and he is very consistent in working toward his goals, while he avoids being hasty. He possesses ease and fluency in expressing himself verbally as well as in writing. He can be pointed, clear and convincing in his statements. He is not likely to exaggerate, but he makes his ideas very clear. His ability to sell should be exceptional.

  Emotionally, subject is quite well balanced. He has some problems, but he seems to cope with them quite well. His appearance is decided and sure, but not overbearing. Being exceptionally competent and in many respects a superior personality, may make people of less competence feel uneasy, without intending to do so. His feeling of self-confidence is not particularly strong, but he seems to check himself constantly and manages to show a self-confident appearance. He apparently does not want to appear overbearing. However, being as superior as he is in so many respects, he cannot help but demonstrating his competence. He has his feelings under a strict rational control and avoids being carried away by them. He likes being surrounded by people, but he does not like personal involvement. Basically, he is a private person who is quite secretive about his personal affairs. He is most selective as to the people in whom he confides. While he knows how to preserve secrecy, he may be rather open and direct in voicing his criticism in matters related to work. No matter how careful he may be, the criticized individuals may feel hurt and think that he wants to show his superiority. Basically, he is well-meaning and not very self-centered. He lives by fundamental ethical principles which he does not like to see violated. Except for usual customary social deceptions, he seems to be honest and sincere. It would require an unusually pressured situation for him to commit any major trespasses. This does not exclude the fact, that probably in his business dealings, this man has had to develop and use a certain shrewdness. There are indications that he is ambitious, however, he seems to be more ambitious for the work or works in which he is involved than for himself.

  This man is sensuous and evidently enjoys the comforts and pleasures of life. Apparently, he has some aesthetic inclinations and probably, when his time allows, can enjoy cultural pleasures in the areas wherever he may find himself. He appears to be a cosmopolitan person who is able to learn from and enjoy a variety of cultures, but he will always preserve his individuality and cultural values. He is a very conscientious individual who is exact in the execution of his duties in the small details as well as in the larger aspects, and he expects his co-workers to do the same. He is a diligent worker, and he overcomes all possible obstacles, in order to complete the tasks which he considers his duty. He has administrative abilities and he likes to organize on a large scale, but he will not overlook the smallest detail which could be of importance, in the general framework of his work. He sets very high standards and expects the people with whom he is dealing to respect them and to live by them also, which may cause occasional difficulties.

  Summarizing one could say that subject is an unusually gifted individual who could function as a competent business organizer and administrator on a large scale, but who also preserved the human qualities of warmth and decency in his personal relationships. There is also the possibility that some individuals will misjudge him, because they do not have the understanding for a personality of such an unusually magnitudinal scope.

  Thea Stein Lewinson

  (Thea S. Hall.)

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  For decades, the Warburgs have hesitated to tell their story or open up their archives. Such reticence is understandable in a family once hounded and vilified by Nazi polemicists. When I began this independent book, several Warburgs expressed misgivings about my timing. They pointed to a worldwide resurgence of anti-Semitism, most notably in Germany and Eastern Europe, and the rebirth of old canards about Jewish bankers. They feared that any book, willy-nilly, would provide grist to malicious propaganda mills. I took the view that hocus-pocus thrives on fantasy, gossip, and speculation. Might not a meticulous account of a Jewish banking family, based on extensive interviews and original documents, help to dispel at least a particle of the ignorance? It seemed an appropriate time to introduce sunlight and disinfectant into the cobwebby netherworld of Jewish banker mythology.

  In the end, I enlisted the cooperation of virtually the entire Warburg family. In addition to submitting to hours of interviews, many family members dredged up documents from drawers, closets, and vaults. Almost every page of this book has been enriched by materials unavailable to prior researchers. I am humbled by the courtesy and generosity shown by the Warburg family and hope that my book repays their effort.

  With so
many people to thank, I am powerfully tempted to list family members and colleagues in alphabetical order and leave it at that. Yet the singular contribution of several people demands separate acknowledgement. Above all, I am grateful to Max Warburg, who showed such exceptional trust in making me the first historian granted unconditional access to the M. M. Warburg papers in Hamburg. This remarkable trove of historical records was diligently gathered by his father, Eric, who tended to shield them from public view. I undertook my research just as records scattered in several places were reunited at the Hamburg bank, making this the first time that an authoritative Warburg history could have been written. It is astonishing that so many papers survived dislocation, exile, Hitler, and the Allied bombing of Hamburg.

  Other people also made a signal contribution to rounding out the documentary record. I must thank Katharine and Nicholas Fox Weber for making available the Bettina Warburg papers; Maria Christina Warburg (Mills) for providing access to the papers of her father, Max Adolph Warburg; Marie Warburg, Alice Auerbach, and Gabriele Schiff for unearthing so much family memorabilia; Eddy Lachman for providing the papers of his grandfather, Aby S., and other Alsterufer Warburgs; and Lucie Kaye and Eva Mitchell for sharing their research into Lola Hahn-Warburg. Anita Warburg was an especially loyal and generous supporter of this project. No less important was the cooperation of Henry Grunfeld, Sir David Scholey, and other S. G. Warburg & Company executives who conquered their legendary corporate reticence and sat through extensive interviews about Sir Siegmund Warburg. Since they spoke on a background basis, my footnotes do not reflect their substantial contribution to the book. (Sharing their dismay over the unreliable biography of Siegmund Warburg by Jacques Attali, I decided to dispense with it entirely as a source.) Jacqueline Childs was kind enough to escort me through Siegmund Warburg’s books at the St. Paul’s Girls’ School. The assistance of Doris Wasserman was particularly helpful in reconstructing Siegmund’s life. I am also indebted to David T. Schiff, J. Richardson Dilworth, Anthony Griffin, Raymond Bonham Carter, and many others who gave me a glimpse of their private correspondence with Sir Siegmund. A. Joshua Sherman played an important strategic role throughout the research. Finally I must thank Madame Alexandra Danilova for breaking a fifty-five-year silence and sharing an intimate moment in her life.

  In writing a book based on unpublished sources, I have required the courtesy of many archives. I would like to thank the staffs of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati; the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School; the Columbia University Oral History Collection; the Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus in Hamburg; the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston; the Leo Baeck Institute in New York; the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton; the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale; the Warburg Institute in London; and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York. Vanessa Drucker scrupulously checked my translations from the German. Nicola Clark assisted in compiling quotations for legal permissions. And in Germany, Dorothea Hauser brought many fascinating documents to my attention that might otherwise have escaped notice.

  Many of the people listed below sat gamely through hours of relentless questioning that must have taxed their patience and stamina. I appreciate their candor, insight, and generosity.

  Warburg Family: Jill Cartter, Benita Cioppa, Marco Cioppa, Ruth Domela, Phyllis Farley, Peter Fleck, Ruth Fleck, Alison Hahn, Margaret Hahn, Andrea S. Kaufman, Madeleine Marx, the late Felix Mitchell, Carol Noyes, Tamar Nussey, the late Elsbeth Oppenheimer, Adolf Prag, Frede Prag, Felicia Warburg Rogan, Walter N. Rothschild, Jr., Jeremy Warburg Russo, Esther Shalmon, Alice Speyer, the late Bettina Warburg, Dorothea Warburg, the late Edward M. M. Warburg, Joan Melber Warburg, Mary Warburg, the late Wilma Warburg, Dr. Renée E. Watkins, the late Gisela Wyzanski, and Geraldine Zetzel.

  Friends, Business Associates, and Scholars: Hermann Abs, John Adams, Margaret Anderson, Fred Baerwald, Nicholas Bolton, Hannah Borowitz, Marianne Breslauer, Dr. Ursula Büttner, Lawrence Buttenwieser, Ernst Cramer, John Craven, Joan Lewisohn Crowell, Peter Stormonth Darling, Countess Marion Dönhoff, Henry Eisenberg, Geoffrey Elliott, Pauline Baerwald Falk, Sir Ian Fraser, Alvin Friedman, Dr. Carl Heinz Goldman, Sir Ernst Gombrich, Martin Gordon, Harry Green, Sir Ronald Grierson, Fred Grubel, Sir Kenelm Lee Guinness, Charles E. A. Hambro, Carl Hess, Yves Istel, Robin Jessel, Bernard Kelly, Charles Kindleberger, Edgar Koerner, Anthony Korner, William Koshland, Harvey M. Krueger, Stephen S. Lash, Oscar Lewisohn, John K. Libby, Kurt Lipstein, Ralph Loewenberg, Richard Lutyens, Joseph McConnell, Vincent A. Mai, Dr. Nicholas Mann, R. W. Manners, Frank Mecklenberg, Edith Meisner, H. Nicolaas Millward, David Mitchell, Pierre Moussa, Edward F. Norton, Dr. Christian Olearius, Veronica Petersen, Lord Parmoor (Milo Cripps), Dr. Abraham Peck, Lionel Pincus, Renata Propper, Carey Reich, Werra Rittmeister, Wolfgang Rittmeister, Sir Eric Roll, Alan Root, Thomas W. Ryley, Geoffrey Samuels, Nathaniel Samuels, Hans-Dieter Sandweg, Peter Karl Schumann, George Schwab, Geoffrey Seligman, Michael Seligman, Charles Sharp, Andrew Smithers, Peter Spira, Jerome Sternstein, Katja Tenenbaum, Lewis Ufland, Ronald Utiger, Michael Verey, John Wehncke, Adelaide Weismann, Dietrich Weismann, John Whitehead, Gretchen Whitman, the late Arthur Winspear, Margot Wittkower, James D. Wolfensohn, Norbert Wollheim, and Ezra Zilkha.

  I am no less indebted to those family members and friends who preferred anonymity.

  I was able to write this book free of the cares that often cloud a writer’s mind. For this I must thank my exceptionally fine team at Random House—my excellent editor, Ann Godoff, as well as Harry Evans and Alberto Vitale—who provided such enthusiastic and generous support. Andy Carpenter and J. K. Lambert performed exquisite design work on the book, while Carsten Fries ably supervised the production editing. My British editor, Jonathan Burnham of Chatto and Windus, and my British agent, Deborah Rogers, warmly supported the project. I am very grateful to Morgan Entrekin of Atlantic Monthly Press for a valuable early discussion of the book’s focus. As always, Melanie Jackson proved the ideal agent, a true and steadfast business partner. She exhibited a cheerful efficiency that would have left even Sir Siegmund Warburg breathless with admiration. My parents were again models of wisdom and serenity. But all debts pale beside the one I owe to my wife, Valerie, who tolerated this second marathon in obsessional thinking with such patience, kindness, and love. Someday I plan to use my royalties to erect a statue to her in a busy public square so that the world may gaze with wonder.

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