The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family

by Ron Chernow

Book Overview

Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, of German-American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679743596
• ISBN13: 9780679743590
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 880 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Another beautifully written biography by Ron Chernow!

I didn't think a book about the Warburg Dynasty could be all that interesting: How wrong I was! I enjoyed every page by this delightful author who can turn the most mundane item into juicy reading material. I savored every page. Excellent; may I also recommend "Titan" by Ron Chernow? It, too is an amazing biography filled with insight and powerful revelations about the world's richest man.

An incredible story well told

Ron Chernow's book on the Warburg Family is excellent to say the least. I love the way he brings the whole story to life. This is a long read, but you should enjoy every page of it. Starting from humble beginnings in the sixteenth century, the Warburgs split into the Mittelweg Warburgs and the Alsterufer Warburgs in the mid-nineteenth century. Of these two branches, the Mittelweg Warburgs represented by Aby, Max, Paul and Felix Warburg became a major driver in Germany, the US and Palestine. Chernow meticulously covers the rise of the Mittelweg Warburgs into the pinnacle of German and US finance as well as their philanthropy and driving force behind the Jewish movement and Palestine. The book does give the impression that if the Warburgs' advice had been followed more closely then today there would not be that Middle East situation (if you can call it that). The downfall of the Mittelweg Warburgs is narrated in equally dramatic fashion. Max Warburg's love for his homeland is undoubted. This presumably prevented him from recognising the Nazis for what they were. Leaving Germany in 1938 for the US must have struck him like going into exile. The Mittelweg Warburgs would not recover their ownership of M.M. Warburg & Co until 1990. The second half of the twentieth century must belong to the Alsterufer Warburgs. Siegmund Warburg, whilst not terribly popular with the Mittelweg Warburgs, was an exceptionally gifted banker, who turned a small firm into the pinnacle of UK merchant banking. At the end of the book there is an `analysis on the handwriting of Sir Siegmund Warburg', which makes incredible reading. What makes this book such a fascinating read is that it vividly describes the rise of a Jewish family to prominence and wealth and the voluntary and (sometimes it seems) the involuntary responsibilities which went with that success.

A Fascinating Lesson of Courage and Triumph in Adversity

Ron Chernow narrates with panache the riveting tribulations of the Warburgs, a prominent Jewish banking dynasty emerging in Germany in the sixteenth century. The author does an outstanding job in switching back and forth between the Alsterufer Warburgs and the Mittelweg Warburgs, the two rivaling branches of the Warburgs. Ron Chernow indeed vividly recasts the numerous actors of that saga against the economic, political and social backdrop of their time. The author brilliantly helps his readers understand the painful dilemma that many German Jews, keener and keener on assimilation into Germany, faced especially under the Weimar Republic and then under Nazism. Ron Chernow also underlines how several Warburgs emigrating outside Germany had a positive influence on the unfolding of some key domestic and overseas events. Ironically, M.M. Warburg & Co., the German cradle of the banking dynasty that Nazism and then internal infighting almost torpedoed with success, is the only one to remain independent today. M.M. Warburg & Co. is Germany's second largest private bank. S.G. Warburg is now part of Union Bank of Switzerland while Warburg Pincus, successor of E.M. Warburg, belongs to Credit Suisse.

A candid insight

The history of the Warburg family is a amazingly tragic, hopeful and truimphant one. Ron Chernow describes the tight rope that Jews trod, at different stages of world issues, in a captive and sensitive manner. The author describes the begining of the banking dynasty and progresses through each genration leaving a unremovable image of each member. With a few exceptions, for every successful and optimistic father there is a unsure and detached son. For every mother who was a perfectionist and hardworking, there was a loyal, ambitious son. Not being Jewish, but understanding the feeling of not being fully assimilated in my own society, i personally appreciated this balancing act. However i believe that the issues of their religion and their trade, whilst very significant, play a complementary backdrop to which is essentially a superb insight into a diverse and ambitious family. One which, i think we can all relate to. I'd recommend it for all readers out there.

Learn history through real events in a family

The best way to learn & really "feel" history is to see it in familiar events, like the story of a family. Ron Chernow has achieved this feat with all 3 of the books I have read by him -- the Rockefeller book, the Morgan book and this book. This volume resonated with me more than the others since I am jewish, and since a number of my ancestors were assimilationist german jews (but never of the magnitude of the Warburgs!). The foolishness & the triumphs of this extended family would have made interesting reading even without the context of world events, but that's what makes the difference between a fair book and a great book. Chernow is particularly good at weaving in the world events without sounding ponderous or pedantic.