Martin Aufhäuser (born May 26, 1875 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

; died 1944 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California) was a German banker who ran and grew private bank Bankhaus H. Aufhäuse. During the Nazi era the bank was

Aryanized Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the tra ...

and Aufhäuser escaped to the United States.

Life

Martin Aufhäuser was the son of the banker Heinrich Aufhäuser (1842–1917). The elder Aufhäuser founded with Samuel Scharlach Bankhaus Aufhäuser & Scharlach in Munich on May 14, 1870. By 1892 Heinrich Aufhäuser paid off his former partner Scharlach and changed the name to Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser from 1894. The bank rose quickly, and gained customers such as Duke Luitpold in Bavaria, the families of

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

as well as Neuberger and Einstein (Alfred Einstein). By 1913, H. Aufhäuser's balance sheet total exceeded 10 million gold marks. After high school in Munich, Martin Aufhäuser completed a banking apprenticeship in Frankfurt am Main. From 1891 he worked at Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser. After his father's death, Martin took over the bank together with his younger brother Siegfried Aufhäuser. In 1918 he became a senior partner there. In 1918 the Berlin banking house S. Bleichröder became a limited partner of the banking house H. Aufhäuser - another sign of the concentration process among banks since the turn of the century. The official name was now: H. Aufhäuser Kommandite von S. Bleichröder in Berlin. From 1921 Martin Aufhäusers took a stake in Bankhaus S. Bleichröder, which resulted in a cross-shareholding between the two Jewish banking houses, as Ernst Kritzler, a partner in S. Bleichröder since 1917, joined Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser at the same time. Martin Aufhäuser also sat on the supervisory board of the Golddiskontbank, a new bank founded in 1924 as a subsidiary of the Reichsbank after the hyperinflation to provide German foreign trade with a convertible means of payment again. Martin Aufhäuser was also a member of the board of the Munich Stock Exchange and the Munich Chamber of Commerce. In 1926 he was appointed a Privy Councillor of Commerce.

Nazi era persecution

When Hitler came to power in 1933 the Aufhäusers were persecuted for being Jewish. The bank was subjected to massive repressive measures and lost customers due to

anti-Jewish boycotts Anti-Jewish boycotts are organized boycotts directed against Jewish people to exclude them economical, political or cultural life. Antisemitic boycotts are often regarded as a manifestation of popular antisemitism. 19th and early 20th century b ...

and other racial persecution. Jewish customers emigrated or were deported. After the violent anti-Jewish Nazi pogrom known as

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

, Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser was "forcibly Aryanized" at the beginning of November, and in December 1938 Friedrich Wilhelm Seiler took over the bank; H. Aufhäuser was thus one of the last private banks and one of the most important to be "

" in this way. In June 1941 Aufhäuser fled Europe aboard the Portuguese ship '' Mouzinho'', which took him from

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He died in Los Angeles in 1944.

Literature

* Herrmann A. L. Degener: ''Degeners Wer ist’s?'' Berlin 1935, S. 42. * ''Aufhäuser, Martin.'' In: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss: ''Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933.'' Band 1. K. G. Saur, München 1980, S. ?. * Felix Höpfner u. a.: ''Unabhängig – Persönlich – Unternehmerisch. Eine Chronik von Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers.'' München 2012, ISBN 978-3-937996-31-8
Digitalisat
.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aufhauser, Martin 1944 deaths 1875 births Jewish German bankers Immigrants to the United States People from Munich Jews who emigrated to escape Nazism