Louis Bamberger

Louis Bamberger ( born May 15, 1855 in Baltimore, † March 11, 1944 ) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder and financier of the Institute for Advanced Study with Abraham Flexner.

Bamberger had German - Jewish ancestry. His parents were Elkan Bamberger and Theresa Hutzler. Bamberger came in 1892 to Newark ( New Jersey), where he became first a small shop, which had previously gone bankrupt, and made it a successful department store. The 1912 newly built home business took an entire block. At the peak of success he employed 2800 employees. When in 1929 he sold his store at Macy's, it was 28 million dollars in sales, the fourth largest in the United States. Macy retained the name Bamberger at its stores in New Jersey in until 1986. From the proceeds of the sale told Bamberger $ 1 million on its 240 employees.

He also founded in 1922 in Newark radio station WOR.

He was a philanthropist who donated for the local Newark Museum, Jewish organizations, hospitals such as Beth Israel Hospital and other charitable purposes. At the most consequential was a donation in the amount of five million dollars, which he founded with his widowed sister Caroline Bamberger Fuld for the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Study, 1930. During the period of Nazi persecution, he helped many Jews to escape from Germany.

He was personally reticent, and remained as a donor like in the background. He was never married. When he died, the flags were three days in Newark at half-mast.