Eugene Meyer

Eugene Isaac Meyer ( born October 31, 1875 in Los Angeles, California, † July 17, 1959 in Washington, DC), the son of German-born immigrant, was the first head of the World Bank, a newspaper magnate, the husband of Agnes E. Meyer and the father by Katharine Graham and Florence Meyer.

Life

Meyer was one of eight children of Marc Eugene Meyer (1842-1925), who was born in Strasbourg and his wife Harriet, born Newmark (1851-1922), daughter of a New York rabbi. His older sister Florence Meyer Blumenthal was a well-known philanthropist. The sisters Rosalie and Elise were married Sigmund and Abraham Stern, former President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.. His brother Joseph Edgar Meyer married the daughter of department store founder Andrew Saks and came in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic died.

Meyer visited the U.S. elite Yale University, where he completed his studies. He quickly became a multi-millionaire through various speculations. In 1910 he married Agnes Elizabeth Ernst, with whom he later had five children. Under Woodrow Wilson, he went to Washington and became the head of the War Finance Corporation; to the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt he remained in the service of governments.

In 1933, he auctioned for $ 825,000 Washington has become insolvent Post ( for which he had five years earlier unsuccessfully offered $ 5 million); soon after the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson gave the first impetus sheet. Only after the war, the newspaper won steadily in importance. Harry S. Truman Meyer made in 1946 to head the World Bank, but Meyer quickly returned to work at the Washington Post.

After Eugene Meyer and his wife, a charitable foundation is named, which steps up today in disasters etc.. Even during his lifetime assisted the couple in need energetic. Here Agnes E. Meyer's commitment emigrated writers such as Thomas Mann is especially emphasized during the Nazi era in Germany.