Emil Rathenau
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Emil Moritz Rathenau (born 11 December 1838 in Berlin - died 20 June 1915) was a German businessperson, entrepreneur, and industrialist, a leading figure in the early European electrical industry.
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[edit] Childhood
Emil Rathenau was born 11 December 1838 in Berlin, the son of a wealthy Jewish merchant family based in Berlin. He was the son of Moritz Rathenau.
[edit] Family life
Rathenau was married in 1866 to Mathilde Nachmann, daughter of a Frankfurt banker. One of his sons was the famous Walther Rathenau, a Weimar-era industrialist, politician, and progressive economist. Walther was assassinated in June 1922 by gangsters of the extreme right-wing. He had another son named Erich Rathenau.
[edit] Career
In 1865, Rathenau was a partner in a factory, during which time (while traveling abroad) he recognized the possibilities of the then newly emerging electrical technology. In 1881, with the help of a bank group, he acquired the rights to manufacture products based on the patents of Thomas Alva Edison. In 1883 he formed the "German Edison Society for Applied Electricity" (Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität), which in 1887 formed into 'Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (or "AEG").
In 1903, Rathenau was appointed general manager of AEG. Together with his competitor and business partner Werner von Siemens, they formed the Telefunken Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie mbH. Rathenau held numerous positions on the supervisory board of Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft und der Elektrizitäts AG vorm. W. Lahmeyer & Co.
[edit] References
- Pohl, Manfred: Emil Rathenau and the AEG , Mainz: Publishing house v. Hase & Koehler, 1988, ISBN 3-7758-1190-7 , with numerous pictures and facsimiles
- Dahlem, Markus: Case studies to the relationship of banks and large-scale enterprise in the German empire, 1871-1914.
- The farbenfabriken before times Friedrich Bavarian & Co. in Leverkusen and the general electricity company
- Information of the working group for critical enterprise and industrial history, Ruhr Univ. Bochum; 19. Bochum, 2004, P. 1-28
- Literature by and over Emil Rathenau in the catalog of the DDB
- Kurzbiographie Emil Rathenau (Dt. Hist. Museum)
- On-line full text of Dahlem: Case studies
