Emil Rathenau
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Emil Rathenau | |
|---|---|
| File:Emil Rathenau.jpg Dr. Emil M. Rathenau, 1883 | |
| Born | 11 December 1838 |
| Died | Template:Death-date and age |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Spouse | Mathilde Nachmann |
| Children | Walther Rathenau Erich Rathenau Jenny Apolant |
| Parent | Moritz Rathenau |
Emil Moritz Rathenau (born 11 December 1838 – died 20 June 1915) was a prominent German entrepreneur, industrialist, and mechanical engineer. He played a pivotal role in the development of the European electrical sector and was the founder of AEG.
Early life
Born in Berlin to a prosperous Jewish merchant family residing near Viktoriastrasse by the Tiergarten, an established Jewish district of the city, Rathenau’s roots were deeply embedded in the commercial fabric of the capital. His father, Moritz Rathenau, was a grain merchant who had relocated to Berlin to establish his enterprise. His mother, Therese, descended from Josef Liebermann, another entrepreneur who had been drawn to the expanding opportunities in the burgeoning Prussian capital.[1] Emil maintained a close relationship with his mother, frequently visiting her until her passing in 1894.[1] The families of his parents were connected through the Gesellschaft der Freunde (Society of Friends), a cultural association that held significant influence among Berlin’s prominent Jewish community.
Rathenau began his professional journey with an apprenticeship in Silesia at a firm owned by the Liebermann family. After four and a half challenging years, he inherited a substantial fortune following the death of his grandfather, Josef Liebermann. This inheritance allowed him to pursue formal technical education in Hanover and Zurich, subsequently securing a role as a technical consultant for Borsig, a Berlin-based manufacturer specializing in railway equipment.[1] His tenure there was brief, as he later spent time in England to broaden his expertise. Returning to Berlin in 1866, he married Mathilde Nachmann, daughter of Isaak Nachmann, a banker from Frankfurt. In 1865, he also partnered with an old schoolmate to acquire a small machine-building workshop in Berlin.[1]
Business career
In 1865, while co-owning a factory, Rathenau identified the potential of emerging electrical technologies during his travels abroad. Following the Franco-Prussian War victory and subsequent economic downturn, he decided to divest from this venture in 1873.
His extensive travels across Central and Eastern Europe included visits to the Vienna Science Exhibition, Philadelphia, and Paris. At the 1881 International Exposition of Electricity, Paris, he witnessed Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb firsthand.[2] Recognizing electricity's transformative prospects, he secured manufacturing rights for products based on Edison’s patents through collaboration with banking partners. By 1907, AEG had grown into the largest commercial enterprise worldwide. Advised by financial institutions to collaborate with rival Werner von Siemens, both industrialists embraced monopoly principles and entered into a trust agreement: Siemens focused on producing and marketing generators while Rathenau concentrated on constructing power plants and laying cables. In 1883, he established the "German Edison Corporation for Applied Electricity" (Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizität), which was rebranded as Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) in 1887.
On 19 February 1884, Rathenau formalized an agreement with Berlin's municipal authorities to electrify the city.[2] While financing this initiative privately, his company gained authorization to install electrical infrastructure within public thoroughfares. In exchange for granting access rights, the city received ten percent of generated revenues. The first power station illuminated Berlin’s 'Gendarmenmarkt' at night. Energy specialist Peter Becker described this arrangement as Germany’s inaugural private-public partnership model. This approach became influential throughout the German Empire.[2]
Rathenau was appointed general manager of AEG in 1903. Alongside his competitor and business associate, he co-founded Telefunken Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie mbH. He also served on supervisory boards including those of Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft und der Elektrizitäts AG vorm. W. Lahmeyer & Co.
In 1907, he founded the German South West African Mining Syndicate in present-day Namibia and initiated a research institute dedicated to addressing irrigation challenges.[3]
Among his children was Walther Rathenau, an industrialist, economist with progressive views, and politician who served as German Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic before being assassinated in Berlin in June 1922 by right-wing extremists from the Organisation Consul. He also had another son named Erich Rathenau and a daughter named Edith.
Literature
- Armin Chodzinski: Kunst und Wirtschaft. Peter Behrens, Emil Rathenau und der dm drogerie markt. Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8659-9030-3, pp. 94–115.
- Markus Dahlem: Case studies examining the relationship between banks and major corporations in the German Empire, 1871–1914. The Farbenfabriken formerly Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (PDF; 218 kB). Published in: Akkumulation. Informationen des Arbeitskreises für kritische Unternehmens- und Industriegeschichte. Ruhr-Univ. Bochum; Issue 19, Bochum, 2004, pp. 1–28.
- Jesko Dahlmann: Innovative Entrepreneurship in the Schumpeterian Sense: Theory and Economic History. Metropolis Verlag, Marburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7316-1269-8, pp. 141–191.
- Ursula Mader: Emil and Walther Rathenau within the Electrochemical Industry (1888–1907). A Historical Analysis (= Gesellschaft, Geschichte, Gegenwart, Volume 20), Trafo-Verlag Weist, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89626-198-3.
- Manfred Pohl: Emil Rathenau and the AEG. Hase & Koehler Verlag, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7758-1190-7; featuring numerous illustrations and Faksimiles.
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See also
References
Further reading
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External links
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- German company founders
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- 19th-century German engineers
- 20th-century German businesspeople
- 19th-century German Jews
- People from the Province of Brandenburg
- Businesspeople from Berlin
- 1838 births
- 1915 deaths
- AEG people