W. Michael Blumenthal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mike Blumenthal
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| 64th United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| In office January 23, 1977 – August 4, 1979 |
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| President | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | William E. Simon |
| Succeeded by | G. William Miller |
| Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs | |
| In office 1961–1967 |
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| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Werner Michael Blumenthal
January 3, 1926 Oranienburg, Weimar Republic |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | Margaret Polley (1951–1977) Barbara Bennett |
| Education | City College of San Francisco University of California, Berkeley (BS) Princeton University (MA, MPA, PhD) |
| Signature |  |
Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist, and political adviser. He served as the top money official for the United States, called the United States Secretary of the Treasury, under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979.
When he was 13, Michael Blumenthal and his Jewish family barely escaped Nazi Germany in 1939. They had to live in the Shanghai Ghetto in China during World War II until 1947. After the war, he moved to San Francisco, USA. He worked many different jobs to pay for his education. He went to college and earned degrees in international economics from the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University.
During his career, he worked in both business and government. Before joining President Jimmy Carter's team, Blumenthal was a successful business leader. He also held important roles under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. As Secretary of the Treasury, he helped guide the country's money plans. He also played a key role in making friends with China again. After leaving his government job, he led big companies like Burroughs Corporation and Unisys. Later, he spent 17 years as the director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Michael Blumenthal has written two books about his life and experiences. He is the oldest living former U.S. Cabinet member.
Contents
Early Life and Escape
Michael Blumenthal was born in Oranienburg, Germany, in 1926. His family owned a small dress shop. His family had lived in Oranienburg for a very long time.
In 1935, the Nazi party created new laws called the Nuremberg Laws. These laws made Jewish people feel unsafe. His family realized they had to leave Germany to be safe. Michael remembered Kristallnacht, a night in November 1938 when Nazis attacked Jewish people and their shops. He was 12 years old.
He said he remembered seeing Jewish stores being smashed. He also saw the biggest synagogue in Berlin burning. He even remembered being beaten up by kids in uniform.
One morning in 1938, Nazi police forced their way into his home. They arrested his father for no reason. His father was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. This was a large forced labor camp where many people, mostly Jews, were later killed.
His mother quickly sold everything they owned. She managed to get her husband released from the camp. They had to sell their family dress shop for almost nothing. His older sister, Stefanie, remembered her mother crying. It wasn't just about losing the shop. It was about how unfair it was that someone they had trained took what they had worked so hard for.
With the little money they had left, his mother bought tickets to Shanghai, China. Shanghai was an "open port" city, meaning people didn't need a special paper called a visa to enter. They left Germany on a ship just before World War II started in 1939. They could only take a few things and no money.
Michael remembered the long trip. They stopped in many ports, but none of them would let Jewish refugees enter. When they arrived in Shanghai, they thought they would only stay a short time. They hoped to travel to a safer country soon. But then World War II began. Japan had taken over Shanghai. The Blumenthals and 20,000 other Jewish refugees were forced to live in the Shanghai Ghetto for eight years.
Michael saw a lot of poverty and hunger in the ghetto. He sometimes saw dead bodies in the streets. He called it a "cesspool." He found a cleaning job at a factory and earned $1 a week. This money helped feed his family. He said he was stuck in a far-off part of Asia and was so poor that he stuffed newspapers into his shoes to cover holes. He had no passport and was a prisoner of the Japanese for two and a half years.
His schooling was not regular. The stress of trying to survive caused his parents to divorce. But he learned English by going to a British school for a short time. He also learned some Chinese, French, and Portuguese.
When the war ended in 1945, American soldiers came to Shanghai. Michael got a job helping in a warehouse for the U.S. Air Force. His language skills were very helpful. In 1947, after much effort, he and his sister finally got visas to the U.S. They had been turned down by Canada.
They traveled to San Francisco, where they knew no one. They had only $200 between them. Michael had limited schooling and was now a refugee without a country. He worked hard to make a new life for himself. He felt he had skills and talents and wanted to achieve things.
Education and New Beginnings
Michael Blumenthal's first full-time job in the U.S. was as a billing clerk. He earned $40 a week. Later, he enrolled at San Francisco City College. He supported himself with part-time jobs. He worked as a truck driver, night elevator operator, busboy, and movie theater ticket-taker. He also worked as an armored guard and in a wax factory.
He was accepted into the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated with honors in 1951 with a degree in international economics. While there, he met and married Margaret Eileen Polley. In 1952, Michael Blumenthal became a citizen of the United States.
Blumenthal received a scholarship to attend Princeton University in New Jersey. He earned two master's degrees in 1953. Then, he earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1956. His doctoral paper was about labor relations in the German steel industry. To earn money, his wife worked as a secretary. He taught economics at Princeton from 1954 to 1957. He also worked as a labor arbitrator for New Jersey.
Career in Business and Government
In 1957, Blumenthal left Princeton University to work for Crown Cork, a company that made bottle caps. He stayed there until 1961 and became a vice president.
In 1961, he moved to Washington, D.C.. He was offered a job by diplomat George Ball. He became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs for President John F. Kennedy. He advised Kennedy on trade from 1961 to 1967. After Kennedy's death, he continued to advise President Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Johnson made him a U.S. Ambassador. He was the chief U.S. negotiator at the Kennedy Round trade talks in Geneva. These talks were very important for international trade. Canada's Minister of Trade called Blumenthal a tough negotiator. Blumenthal found this funny, thinking, "If they'd let me into the country in 1945, I might have been working on their side."
In 1967, Blumenthal left government work. He joined Bendix International, a company that made auto parts, electronics, and aerospace equipment. After five years, he became its chairman and CEO. He stayed with Bendix for ten more years. When he first took over, Bendix was struggling. But after five years, its sales almost doubled. By 1976, a business magazine called Bendix "one of the five best-managed companies in the U.S."
While Blumenthal was leading Bendix, newly elected President Carter asked him to become the United States Secretary of the Treasury. He served in this role from January 23, 1977, to August 4, 1979. His appointment was approved by everyone. In June 1977, he went to a conference in Paris. The main topic was how Western countries would recover from a tough economic time.
Blumenthal first met Carter in Japan in 1975. Carter later invited him to his home. Carter knew Blumenthal was a successful business leader and negotiator. He believed Blumenthal would give good economic advice. Blumenthal noted that there weren't many top Democratic business people. When he accepted the job, his yearly income dropped a lot. He also found it amusing to read a German newspaper headline that said, "A Berliner is to Become Carter's New Minister of Finance."
As Secretary of the Treasury, Blumenthal worked to fight inflation. Inflation means prices go up and money buys less. Inflation increased a lot during his time. Much of this was because oil prices went up. The U.S. dollar also faced challenges from other countries' money.
In February 1979, Blumenthal made history. He was the first American Cabinet member to visit China after the U.S. officially recognized its Communist government. This was a very big deal, and many journalists went with him. His experience living in Shanghai was a key reason Chinese leaders invited him. His trip was a great success. He went back the next month for the opening of the U.S. Embassy.
He gave part of his speech in Chinese. He told Chinese leaders that America was worried about China's invasion of Vietnam. He asked them to take their troops out quickly. The Chinese were very impressed by his speech. A few weeks after his visit, the Chinese army did withdraw.
In July 1979, President Carter asked Blumenthal and four other Cabinet members to resign. Twenty-three other senior staff members also left.
After leaving government, Blumenthal joined Burroughs Corporation in 1980. He became its chairman a year later. In 1986, Burroughs merged with another company to become Unisys Corporation. Blumenthal became its chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). He stayed with Unisys until 1990. After that, he became a partner at an investment bank called Lazard Freres & Company. With more free time, he taught economics at Princeton.
Leading the Jewish Museum Berlin
In 1997, Michael Blumenthal became the first director of the Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany. He started his work in December of that year. The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was started in 1933 but was closed by the Nazi government in 1938. The new museum shows 2,000 years of German-Jewish history, including the sad events of The Holocaust. It is the largest Jewish museum in Europe.
Blumenthal was the museum's director from 1997 to 2014. He is given credit for the museum's completion and opening in 2001. This project got a lot of attention in Germany and around the world. In 1999 and 2006, Blumenthal received Germany's Senior Medals of Merit. These awards recognized his important work in Berlin.
Personal Life
Michael Blumenthal married Margaret Eileen Polley, a teacher, while he was in college. They had three daughters: Ann, Jill, and Jane.
He now lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his second wife, Barbara Bennett. They have one son, Michael.
In 2008, he was chosen as a delegate for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He supported then-Senator Barack Obama.
Blumenthal is also featured in a 2020 movie called Harbor from the Holocaust.
Awards and Honors
- He received the Award of Excellence from The International Center in New York.
- In 1980, Blumenthal received the Horatio Alger Award. This award honors people who have overcome challenges to achieve success.
- In 1999, he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his work promoting kindness and fairness. He also received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- In 2002, he received the Goethe Medal, the Culture Prize of Berlin, and Berlin's Medal of Merit.
- In 2013, he received the Lucius D. Clay Medal and the Roland Berger Prize for Human Dignity.
- In 2014, he received the Nachama Prize for Tolerance and Civil Courage.
- In 2015, he received the Jewish Museum Berlin's Prize for Tolerance and Understanding.
- He was made an honorary citizen of Berlin in 2015. He also became an honorary citizen of Oranienburg, the city where he was born.
- Blumenthal has many honorary degrees from major U.S. universities.
- In 1979, he received Princeton University's Madison Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
See also
- List of foreign-born United States Cabinet members
- List of Jewish United States Cabinet members
