Customer Reviews

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

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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.

Ostensibly the study of a remarkable, wealthy dynasty, The Warburgs is a monumental history of Europe, the United States, Israel and even Africa. The author manages to faithfully document the lives of these international bankers, nobel prize winning scientists, explorers and philanthropists against some of the most haunting events in human history.

That the Warburg family loved their German homeland is indisputable. Even after WWII, some descendents could not resist returning to Hamburg, to see the old estates, to embrace old nannies, employees and to on one occassion, steal back a valuable vase that the Nazi's had appropriated elsewhere. They were passionate German citizens later of course spurned and victimized.

From Imperial and then Weimar Germany, the Warburgs were integral to achieving the ends of their leaders; Max Warburg worked tirelessly up until the very end, to secure a peaceful neutralization of Hitler's intention for the Jews. He was involved in assuring a Dutch purchase of Nyassaland in Northern Mozambique which ultimately played a significant role for Rommel's troops.

The family with connections to the Rothschilds, Loebs, Kuhns and others had solid foundations in the U.S. with one Warburg advising Theodore Roosevelt and later, of course, FDR. And logically, from this family where ambivalence toward Judaeism was an on-going theme, there were inevitable struggles and betrayals during the seeding and conceptualization of an Israeli sovereign state.

The book has many levels of interest- it involves a history of culture and the arts, of Jewish European exodus to the U.S and to Israel, it presents scenes of wealthy Jews celebrating with Christmas trees, of kids attending Anglican schools, and even flirtations with far left and deeply conservative politics.

The book is a meditation on the nature of wealth and being Jewish, the insoluble interactions of the two and the frequently unintentional social responsibilities carried within those elements.

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.

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.

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.

It took me awhile to really get into this book and even then it was a somewhat challenging read. Thank goodness Chernow includes family trees at the beginning of the book. I generally like historical biographies and enjoyed this book but it was a long read. Chernow clearly spent a lot of time and effort researching the subjects and does a wonderful job of building the story. It would have been nice to do a sort of ... where are they now? to bring the reader up to date on the descendants and what they are doing but a great story for the 1920-1960 era of a storied family.

I couldn't put down this book. An amazing study of an equally amazing family. To Chernow's credit, the book reveals the multiple facets of the Warburg clan in such an even-handed manner, I never felt the need to gloss over praise or polemics. I enjoyed this book so much, I am now reading his biography of Alexander Hamilton.

It is a magnificently told story of one of the most influent families. It is beautifully written with an exceptional level of details. At the end it is a history tome, but it just does not feel like one. I was able to start and finish it in one week, thats how captivating the read is.
These are some of the impressions I was left with:
You cant but notice and appreciate the style and journalistic craftsmanship of Ron Chernow in the making of this book.
What adds to that appreciation is the fact that details about this family (especially the German side) must of have been very hard to find and disclose, as the power of the banking families is secrecy. Kuddos to Ron for doing that. The enormous amount of details gives a complete picture of the history of the family.
The description of the struggle of the Warburgs under the Nazis (their weakness [the denial, the false hopes, etc] as well as their strengths), and the description of how the sneaky nazis dealt with with the high-finance class of Jewish bankers, it was all new to me. Even the fact and details of the post-war details were quite astonishing.
The details of the involvement of the American Warburg was also new, or rather I only knew pieces of it. This book put it all together and in the same context.
The only negative or rather neutral impression is that as much as Mr. Chernow had tried to describe the fact in a fair and honest way (and backed up by fact and bibliography) you just feel that the story seem to be told by the family members themselves, as the way they saw or interpret things to have happened. The facts are there but they seem to be there in order to lead you to a predefined conclusion, instead of leaving the reader to interpret them.
Most likely having the family tales as the only source of reference this sort of interpretation is unavoidable, but it seems that the story is painted somewhat with a rosy light and avoiding some of the ugliness that lurks in the backgrounds of every family story, especially of a very competitive family such as the Warburgs.
Yet, dont take me wrong, this is far from being and apologetics book of the Warburgs, the good, the bad and the ugly are all in display here, and the reader will see the realism of the story and details.
The fact that is the only valume that realisticalle describe the Warburg family makes this unique and interesting.
It would be helpful to historians, students and casual reader alike.

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.

In prototypical style Chernow presents this classic story of the building and dismantling of a briliant Jewish banking family which developed in Hamburg, Germany, London then New York City. The cast of characters including dominating men and women from the 19th and 20th century who perservered through numerous Depressions, recessions, loss of matriarchal and patriarchal family heads and lastly the Holocaust. Great writings not only recounts their actions but their reasons adn their innermost thoughts. Their idiosyncrasies are fortold and explained. Numerous analogies are made to bring you to the forfront of this captivating historical family. This is an epic story so well told you will see aspects of your own family in the host of characters. Brilliant read.