Marcus Goldman (born Marcus Goldmann; December 9, 1821 – July 20, 1904) was a Jewish American
investment banker, businessman, and financier.
He was the founder of
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho ...
, which has since become one of the world's largest
investment bank
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
s.
Early life
Mark Goldmann was born on December 9, 1821, in
Trappstadt
Trappstadt is a municipality in the district of Rhön-Grabfeld in Bavaria, Germany.
Notable people
*Joseph Brunner (26 November 1706 - 19 November 1827), born in Trappstadt and died in Altenstein. It has been suggested that he was the oldest ma ...
, Bavaria, Germany, to an
Ashkenazi Jewish
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
family.
His father, Wolf Goldman, was a farmer and cattle dealer.
His mother, Bella Katz Oberbrunner, who came from
Zeil am Main
Zeil am Main is a town in the Haßberge district in Lower Franconia, an area in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Main, 7 km east of Haßfurt, 24 km northwest of Bamberg, and 25 km ea ...
, was widowed with five children from a former marriage; her first husband was called Samuel Oberbrunner.
His paternal grandfather was called Jonathan Marx until he changed his name to Goldmann when Jews were allowed to have surnames in 1811.
While attending classes at the synagogue in
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg ...
, he met
Joseph Sachs, who would become his lifelong friend.
Goldman immigrated to the United States from
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, in 1848 during the first great wave of
Jewish immigration to America, resulting from the
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
In political science, a revolution ( Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically d ...
. Upon his arrival in America, his name was changed to Marcus Goldman by US immigration.
Career
Goldman worked as a peddler with a horse-drawn cart and later as a shopkeeper in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
, where he initially rented the room in a boarding-house previously rented by his old friend Joseph Sachs.
In 1869, Goldman relocated to New York City and hung out a shingle on Pine Street in lower
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, with the legend "Marcus Goldman & Co.", setting himself up as a broker of
IOUs.
From his earliest days of his business, Goldman was able to singlehandedly transact as much as $5 million worth of
commercial paper a year. Successful though he was, Goldman's business was insignificant compared to that of the other Jewish-German bankers of the day. Concerns like
J. & W. Seligman & Co., with
working capital
Working capital (WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organisation, or other entity, including governmental entities. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is consi ...
of $6 million in 1869 (equivalent of $ million in ), were already modern-day investment bankers immersed in underwriting and trading railroad bonds.
In 1882, Goldman invited his son-in-law Samuel to join him in the business and changed the firm's name to M. Goldman and Sachs. Business boomed—soon the new firm was turning over $30 million worth of paper a year—and the firm's capital was now $100,000 (equivalent of $ million in ).
For almost fifty years after its inception, all of Goldman Sachs's partners were members of intermarried families. In 1885, Goldman took his own son Henry and his son-in-law Ludwig Dreyfuss into the business as junior partners and the firm adopted its present name, Goldman Sachs & Co. In 1894, Henry Sachs entered the firm, and in 1896, the firm joined the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...
.
When Goldman retired, he left the firm in the hands of his son
Henry Goldman
Henry Goldman (September 21, 1857 – April 4, 1937) was an American heir, banker, philanthropist and art collector. A member of the Goldman–Sachs family, he was instrumental in the making of the financial conglomerate Goldman Sachs in the early ...
and his son-in-law
Samuel Sachs. In 1904, two of Sachs' sons, Arthur and Paul, joined the firm immediately after graduating from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
.
Personal life and death
Goldman married eighteen-year-old Bertha Goldman, who had also immigrated from Germany. They had five children. Goldman's youngest daughter, Louisa, married
Samuel Sachs, the son of close friends and fellow
Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia.
History
After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...
, Bavaria immigrants.
Louisa's older sister and Sam's older brother had already married. His older son, Julius Goldman, married Sarah Adler, daughter of
Samuel Adler.
Goldman died in
Elberon, New Jersey
Elberon is an unincorporated community that is part of Long Branch in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP code 07740.
As of the 2010 United States Census, the population for ZIP ...
, in the summer of 1904.
[ ]
See also
*
Goldman–Sachs family
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Goldman Sachs & Co
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldman, Marcus
1821 births
1904 deaths
American bankers
American financiers
American people of German-Jewish descent
Businesspeople from New York City
Chairmen of Goldman Sachs
Chief Executive Officers of Goldman Sachs
German emigrants to the United States
German Ashkenazi Jews
Jewish American bankers
People from Rhön-Grabfeld
19th-century American businesspeople