Carl Fürstenberg

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Carl Fürstenberg (August 28, 1850 – February 9, 1933) was one of the most prominent German bankers of the late nineteenth and early twenteeth century, and was responsible for the revival of the German mining industry during his era.^[1]

Fürstenberg was born to Jewish parents in Danzig (Gdańsk). While working at a West Prussian textile mill throughout his childhood, he apprenticed under local banker R. Damme. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Berlin.

At first, Fürstenberg worked for the textile company of Gebr. Simon (Simon Bros.). Two years later, he became an employee at the Disconto-Gesellschaft, one of the leading German joint-stock banks. In 1871, he defected to aristocrat Gerson von Bleichröder's well-known S. Bleichröder Bank, working in the firm as a departemental manager. In 1883, he became first director of the joint-stock bank Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft (B. G.-H.) and dominated it during the next decades in a way, that the bank was often regarded as Fürstenberg's bank. In 1884 has was accepted into the Gesellschaft der Freunde society. Under Fürstenberg, the B. G.-H. became the house bank of Emil Rathenau's AEG. 1902, Fürstenberg made Emil Rathenau's son, Walther Rathenau a co-director of the B. G.-H. which he remained until 1907.

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