Henry Goldman (September 21, 1857 – April 4, 1937) was an American heir, banker, philanthropist and art collector. A member of the

Goldman–Sachs family The Goldman–Sachs family is a family of Ashkenazi Jewish descent known for the leading investment bank Goldman Sachs. Marcus Goldman, while attending classes at the synagogue in Würzburg, met Joseph Sachs, who would become his lifelong friend. ...

, he was instrumental in the making of the financial conglomerate

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

in the early twentieth century.

Early life

Henry Goldman was born on September 21, 1857 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. His father,

Marcus Goldman Marcus Goldman (born Marcus Goldmann; December 9, 1821 – July 20, 1904) was a Jewish American investment banker, businessman, and financier. He was the founder of Goldman Sachs, which has since become one of the world's largest investment ba ...

, was a German-born banker. Goldman attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

but failed to graduate due to poor eyesight. Others believe this story of "poor eyesight" was family lore, and that Goldman, as a second-generation German immigrant and a Jew, did not feel welcome at Harvard.

Career

Goldman started his career at Goldman Sachs in 1884. Goldman helped list retail companies like

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and Woolworth, despite the firms' shortage of assets. In 1911, when the firm joined with

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

in refinancing and incorporating

Studebaker Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers M ...

, Henry served with great dedication on the automaker's executive committee.Erskine A
History of the Studebaker Corporation
South Bend 1918 (free download at Google Books) Goldman broke with his brother-in-law and main partner

Samuel Sachs Samuel Sachs (; July 28, 1851 – March 2, 1935) was an American investment banker. Early life Samuel Sachs was born on July 28, 1851 in Maryland, the son of Sophie (née Baer) and Joseph Sachs, both Jewish immigrants from Bavaria, Germany. He h ...

and the bank during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1915, as tensions rose in Europe, Goldman publicly voiced support for the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and refused to allow Goldman Sachs to participate in a $150 million Anglo-French bond issue arranged by

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

. The rest of Goldman's colleagues supported the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. In 1917, after America entered the war, Goldman resigned as a partner from Goldman Sachs in recognition of the negative effects of this irreconcilable difference of opinion. Goldman retired from Goldman Sachs in 1917. Additionally, Goldman served on the Boards of Directors of the Lawyers Title and Trust Company, the Columbia Trust Company, the Commercial Investment Trust Corporation, and the Berlin-based Shrebreuger Technishe Hochschule.

Philanthropy

Goldman remained a strong supporter of Germany until 1933, when, during a yearly trip 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 ...

, he witnessed firsthand the increasingly brutal and institutionalized

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

that prevailed in the country. Goldman never returned to Germany. Until his death in 1937, Goldman worked to help

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

intellectuals and child refugees immigrate to the U.S. to escape the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Goldman helped to fund the

Stern–Gerlach experiment The Stern–Gerlach experiment demonstrated that the spatial orientation of angular momentum is quantized. Thus an atomic-scale system was shown to have intrinsically quantum properties. In the original experiment, silver atoms were sent throug ...

in quantum physics, and purchased a

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

for

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

(which was later confiscated by the Nazis).Charles D. Ellis, ''The Partnership'',

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

, 2008, p.15 He also purchased a

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are co ...

for

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...

. With six other New Yorkers, Goldman endowed a US$150,000 chair in German Art and Culture at his alma mater, Harvard University.

Art collection

Goldman was a significant art collector. His collection focused on "Renaissance Italian, Dutch and Flemish paintings." For example, he purchased ''Portrait of a Man Sitting'' by

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

for US$175,000 in 1916.

Personal life

Goldman married Babette Kaufman Goldberg. They resided at 998

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City. They had two sons, Robert Goldman and Henry Goldman Jr., and a daughter, Florence Vogel.

Death

Goldman died on April 4, 1937 in New York City. He was 79 years old. He was buried at the

Salem Fields Cemetery Salem Fields Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located at 775 Jamaica Avenue in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, United States, within the Cemetery Belt. It was founded in 1852 by Temple Emanu-el. Salem Fields is the final ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldman, Henry 1857 births 1937 deaths Businesspeople from Philadelphia People from the Upper East Side Harvard University alumni American investment bankers American corporate directors American people of German-Jewish descent Goldman Sachs people