Sir
Siegmund George Warburg (
30 September 1902 --
22 October 1982) was a German-born
English banker. He was a member of the prominent
Warburg family. He played a prominent role in the development of merchant banking.
He was born in the village of
Seeburg,
Germany (today part of Bad
Urach), the only child of
Georges Siegmund Warburg and
Lucie.
Georges Siegmund Warburg and Lucie raised a young Siegmund Warburg on an estate (
Uhenfels Castle) in
Swabia in
South West Germany far away from the main branch of the family, which operated the second largest bank in
Hamburg, up north. Siegmund had a sincere and deep affection for his mother who taught him to have a critical and inquisitive mind
.
In the period immediately before the
Second World War he worked under cover for the Z
Organisation, a highly secret offshoot of
MI6/
SIS, and reported impressively from
Switzerland on his regular meetings with
Hjalmar Schacht, then the president of the
Nazi German Reichsbank and thus the most powerful
German banker.
He was forced to flee the
National Socialist regime of
Adolf Hitler and moved to the
United Kingdom in 1934 where he co-founded
S. G. Warburg & Co. in 1946 with
Henry Grunfeld.
In the United Kingdom, Siegmund was considered an 'upstart' to the establishment in the
City of London. His most famous achievement was the establishment of the EuroBond market. He firmly believed that financial integration of
Europe was an essential and natural step in the development of the
European economy.
The firm that he created with Grunfeld,
S.G. Warburg & Co., was a major
British investment bank (merchant bank at the time), and Siegmund was the bank's managing director until the
1970s - when although he officially had retired and was living in Switzerland, still retained a personal secretary to draft correspondence and assist with the operations of the firm.
Control of the firm S.G. Warburg and Co. was retained through a family controlled holding company called '
Mercury Securities', where stock was allocated to S.G. Warburg & Co. partners as well as his
Swedish wife and children.
The firm S.G. Warburg & Co. was acquired by
UBS AG creating
UBS Warburg, which then after a rebranding exercise was dropped, leaving only UBS AG.
He was also simultaneously a partner in the
U.S. investment bank
Kuhn, Loeb from
1953 until
1964 through a holding company to avoid the restrictions of the Glass--Steagall
Act.
He died in
London in 1982.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegmund_Warburg
The Warburg family is a prominent family and financial dynasty of
German Jewish descent, noted for their varied accomplishments in investment banking, physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy.
They originated as the
Venetian Jewish del
Banco family, one of the wealthiest Venetian families in the early 1500s.
Following restrictions imposed on banking and the
Jewish community, they fled to
Bologna, and thence to Warburg, in
Germany, in the 16th century, after which they took their name.
The family re-established itself in Altona, near Hamburg in the
17th century, and it was there that
M. M. Warburg & Co. was established in 1798, among the oldest still existing investment banks in the world. Other banks created by members of the family include:
M.M.Warburg & Co.,
Warburg Pincus, S. G. Warburg & Co. (becoming UBS Warburg).
The family is traditionally divided into two prominent lines, the Alsterufer
Warburgs and the Mittelweg Warburgs. The Alsterufer Warburgs descended from Siegmund Warburg (1835--1889) and the Mittelweg Warburgs descended from his brother
Moritz M. Warburg (1838--1910). They took their nicknames from the brothers' respective addresses in Hamburg.
The brothers were grandsons of
Moses Marcus Warburg.
Siegmund George Warburg was of the Alsterufer line; the five brothers
Abraham (Aby) M.,
Max M.,
Paul M.,
Felix M. and
Fritz Moritz Warburg were of the Mittelweg line.
The brothers Moses Marcus Warburg (1763--1830) and
Gerson Warburg (1765--1826) founded the M. M. Warburg & Co. banking company in 1798. Moses Warburg's great-great grandson, Siegmund George Warburg, founded the investment bank S. G. Warburg & Co in London in 1946. Siegmund's second cousin,
Eric Warburg, founded Warburg Pincus in
New York in
1938. Eric Warburg's son
Max Warburg (not to be confused with
Eric's father Max Warburg) is currently one of the three partners of M.M.Warburg & Co., Warburg. Max Warburg's elder brother
Aby Warburg used his money to establish the
Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg, since 1934
The Warburg Institute in London.
Paul Warburg is most famous an advocate of the
US Federal Reserve System, established in 1913.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_family
- published: 30 Jul 2014
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