Top Banker in Exile

Stamford, Connecticut: The Overbrook Press, 1947. 230 by 160mm (9 by 6¼ inches). Black printed boards; [14] pp. Illustrated frontispiece. 200 copies printed. A eulogy of Jeidels. In German. Good plus. Interior pulling free of boards and old water stain to top of end papers. Otto Jeidels (1882–1947) was one of Germany’s top bankers of Jewish heritage. In 1931 and 1932 he held an almost unheard of 45 board positions. Jeidels held a key role at the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft (i.e. BHG), Germany’s most important private investment bank of the time. His entire world collapsed with the rise of National Socialism.

EXILE: Jeidels’s board positions evaporated after 1932, and he started to spend more time in Switzerland (a country of which he was also a citizen). He finally left Germany for good in 1938 after all his real property in Germany was seized. Jeidels was well enough connected that the Reichsbank made an exception and allowed the transfer of significant assets abroad. It remains unknown how much wealth Jeidels lost and how much he preserved. In November 1938, Jeidels emigrated to the United States. There he first worked in investment banking at Lazard Frères in New York. After a few years he switched to Bank of America. As Vice President of Bank of America, he was the head of investment banking for the entire West coast.

This eulogy was written by Gerhard Graf von Kanitz (1885–1949), a Prussian politician and close friend of Jeidels.
At the time of cataloguing, no other copies for sale. OCLC identifies eight holdings in the United States.

Bibliography: immigrantentrepreneurship.org