Emil Moritz Rathenau (11 December 1838 – 20 June 1915) was a German entrepreneur, industrialist, mechanical engineer. He was a leading figure in the early European
electrical
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
industry.
Early life
Rathenau was born in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, into a wealthy
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish merchant family based on Viktoriastrasse by the Tiergarten, an old Jewish quarter of the city. His father
Moritz Rathenau, was a grain trader who had moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
to set up business. His mother, Therese, was the daughter of
Josef Liebermann, another businessman attracted to the growing opportunities of the burgeoning
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n capital.
Emil was particularly close to his mother, whom he regularly visited until her death in 1894.
His parents families had met through the (Society of Friends), a cultural organisation played a central role amongst the prominent members .
Emil undertook an apprenticeship in
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
, working for a company owned by the Liebermann family. After four and half unhappy years he received a large inheritance following the death his grandfather, Josef Liebermann. This enabled him to gain a technical training in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and
Zurich, and then an appointment as a technical adviser for
Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* (1867–1897), German entrepreneur
* August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman
* Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer
* Ernst Borsig
Ernst August Pau ...
, a Berlin-based manufacturer for the
railway sector.
However he did not remain there long, and spent some time in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
expanding his experience. Upon his return to Berlin, in 1866 he married , daughter of the
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
banker Isaak Nachmann (1816–1870). Also in 1865 he joined an old school friend in taking over a small machine building factory in Berlin.
Business 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. The dramatic victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War was ensued by a collapse, prompting Rathenau to sell up in 1873.
A Grand Tour of Central and Eastern Europe took him to Vienna Science Exhibition, Philadelphia, and Paris. In 1881, he attended the
International Exposition of Electricity, Paris
The first International Exposition of Electricity in Paris ran from August 15, 1881 through to November 15, 1881 at the Palais de l'Industrie on the Champs-Élysées. It served to display the advances in electrical technology since the small elect ...
and saw
Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
's invention of the light bulb for the first time.
Realizing the potential of electricity, he acquired the rights to manufacture products based on Edison's patents with the help of a bank group. By 1907 AEG had become the largest commercial company in the world. The bank advised him to partner with his competitor
Werner von Siemens
Ernst Werner Siemens (von Siemens from 1888; ; ; 13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist. Siemens's name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He foun ...
. Since both were followers of the idea of monopoly they signed a contract of
trust (monopoly)
A trust or corporate trust is a large grouping of business interests with significant market power, which may be embodied as a corporation or as a group of corporations that cooperate with one another in various ways. These ways can include const ...
where Siemens was producing and selling generators and Rathenau built power stations and laid cables. In 1883 he founded the "German Edison Corporation for Applied Electricity" (''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizität''), which in 1887 changed into the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (General Electricity Incorporated) abbreviated
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
.
On 19 February 1884 Rathenau and the magistrate of Berlin signed an agreement on the electrification of the city.
[ While he financed the deal, Rathenau's private company was also permitted to use public streets to lay electricity lines. The city received 10% of the income for giving its authorization, and the first power station went online to illuminate the 'Gendarmenmarkt' at night. Peter Becker, a German energy expert, called this Germany's first private-public partnership. The Berlin model became influential throughout the German Empire.][
In 1903, Rathenau was appointed general manager of AEG. Together with his competitor and business partner, they formed the ''Telefunken Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie mbH''. He held numerous positions on the supervisory board of ''Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft und der Elektrizitäts AG vorm. W. Lahmeyer & Co.''
In 1907, Rathenau established the German South West African Mining Syndicate in what is now ]Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
and also established a research company to study irrigation problems.
One of his sons was Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician.
During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...
, an industrialist, politician, and progressive economist who served as German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
Foreign Minister
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
during the Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
. He was assassinated in Berlin in June 1922 by the right-wing terrorist group Organisation Consul
Organisation Consul (O.C.) was an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated in the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the disbanded Freikorps group Marine Brigade Ehrhardt and was respons ...
. He had another son named Erich Rathenau
The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization).
The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...
and a daughter Edith
Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and var ...
.
See also
* Rathenau Rathenau is a German locational surname, named after the obsolete spelling for the town of Rathenow in Brandenburg. The name may refer to:
*Emil Rathenau (1838–1915), German industrialist
* Gerhart Rathenau (1911–1989), Dutch scientist
*Walther ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rathenau, Emil
German company founders
German industrialists
19th-century German businesspeople
20th-century German businesspeople
19th-century German Jews
People from the Province of Brandenburg
Businesspeople from Berlin
19th-century German people
1838 births
1915 deaths
AEG people