Olof Aschberg (July 22, 1877 – April 21, 1960) was a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
banker of
Russian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...
descent who served as head of the Stockholm bank Nya Banken, the first bank in Sweden for
trade unions
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
and
cooperatives
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...
. From August 18, 1922 on he served as Director-General of Roscombank, which was later transformed into
Vnesheconombank Vnesheconombank or Vneshekonombank () is shorthand for the Bank for Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs, established in 1988 from the former Foreign Trade Bank of the USSR. It may refer to:
* Vnesheconombank (USSR), a Soviet bank in activity from 19 ...
.
Aschberg was a leftist sympathizer and helped finance the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
during the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
. In gratitude, the
Bolshevik government
Under the leadership of Russian communist Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik Party seized power in the Russian Republic during a coup known as the October Revolution. Overthrowing the pre-existing Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks established a n ...
allowed Aschberg to do business with the Soviet Union during the 1920s (as was consistent with the
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...
). His co-directors included prominent Swedish cooperatives and Swedish socialists, including G. W. Dahl, K. G. Rosling, and C. Gerhard Magnusson.
Early years
In Stockholm, Aschberg founded the first Swedish bank for trade unions and cooperatives (Nya Banken) in 1912 and became a friend of
Hjalmar Branting
Karl Hjalmar Branting (; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician who was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1907 until his death in 1925, and three times Prime Minister of Sweden. When Branting c ...
. When financial operations in favor of the Germans in 1918 caused him trouble with the
Allies of World War I
The Allies or the Entente (, ) was an international military coalition of countries led by the French Republic, the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the United States, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan against the Central Powers ...
, the bank was renamed Svensk Ekonomiebolaget.Alain Dugrand / Frédéric Laurent, ''Willi Münzenberg. Artiste en révolution (1889–1940)'', Paris, Librairie Arthème Fayard 2008, pp. 218–219, 585 He was already a successful banker and businessman when he met first
Willi Münzenberg
Wilhelm Münzenberg (14 August 1889 – June 1940) was a German Communist activist and publisher who served as the first head of the Young Communist International from 1919 to 1921 and as a member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933. He also foun ...
who visited the Stockholm Youth Socialist Congress of 1917. Later, during the Bolsheviks aspirations to rebuild the Russian economy, it was Münzenberg's task to expand their modest pool of capital by floating so-called "workers' loans" using his
Workers International Relief
The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...
organization.Sean McMeekin, ''The red millionaire: A political biography of Willi Münzenberg, Moscow’s secret propaganda tsar in the West'', New Haven & London,Yale University Press 2003, pp. 135, 138, 296, 297, 301 By means of this subterfuge the money used for buying machines and goods in the West looked like being the outcome of proletarian support, in reality it came directly from the Kremlin, confiscated from Russia's rich and the Church.
Established in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
in the 1920s, Aschberg's " Guarantee and Credit Bank for the East" was charged with repayment of the WIR workers' loans, although he had not been very fond of it from its very beginning on and had even contributed to abolish it soon after its launch. Aschberg had already gained the Soviet leaders' favor, by being one of the main connections in the early years after 1917 in evading the international boycott on gold robbed by the Bolsheviks, which he offered on the Stockholm market after having the bullions melted down and given new markings. At the end of the 1920s Aschberg moved to France, where he bought Château du Bois du Rocher at
Jouy-en-Josas
Jouy-en-Josas () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is located in the southwestern outer suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris, on the departmental border with Essonne.
Jouy- ...
(in 1950 offered to
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
and subsequently sold to the
Yvelines
Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.department).
In a
U.S. State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...
file a Green Cipher message from the U.S. embassy in Christiania (renamed
Oslo
Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
in 1925), Norway, dated February 21, 1918, it reads: ''"Am informed that Bolshevik funds are deposited in Nya Banken, Stockholm, Legation Stockholm advised. Schmedeman".''
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. Again Münzenberg was often invited to Aschberg's
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
townhouse on the place Casimir-Périer and received the funds for launching ''Die Zukunft'' (The Future), a weekly political broadsheet. The
Left Bank
In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water.
Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography.
In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...
townhouse was gradually transformed into a kind of all-purpose Münzenberg salon, attracting the attention of the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, which spied on the meetings taking place there. With the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Aschberg was interned in
Camp Vernet
Le Vernet Internment Camp, or Camp Vernet, was a concentration camp in Le Vernet, Ariège, near Pamiers, in the French Pyrenees. It was built in 1918 as a barracks, but after World War I it was used as an internment camp for prisoners of war. ...
by the French authorities. Due to his
Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish background, he was endangered when France was invaded by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
in 1940 and fled with his family to the United States in January 1941 via
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
when the
Vichy government
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...
set him free. Upon arrival, Aschberg immediately started to support the Free World Association. After the war, Aschberg moved back to Sweden. In 1946 he started publishing his memoirs in three volumes (''En vandrande jude från Glasbruksgatan'', ''Återkomsten'', and ''Gästboken'') and he invited
Margarete Buber-Neumann
Margarete Buber-Neumann (née Thüring; 21 October 1901 – 6 November 1989) was a German writer. As a senior Communist Party of Germany member and Gulag survivor, she was turned into a staunch anti-communist. She wrote the famous memoir ''Under ...
to write ''Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler''.
Charity
He built up a collection of
Russian icons
Russian icons represent a form of religious art that developed in Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Christianity after Kievan Rus' Christianization of Kievan Rus', adopted the faith from the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire in ...
containing 245 pieces which he donated to the Swedish
Nationalmuseum
Nationalmuseum is the List of national galleries, national gallery of fine arts of Sweden, located on the peninsula Blasieholmen in central Stockholm.
The museum's operations stretch far beyond the borders of Blasieholmen, including the Natio ...
in Stockholm in 1933.Helge Kjellin, ''Icones Russes. Collection Olof Aschberg. Donation faite au Musée National'', (Catalogues d'expositions du Musée National, № 45), Stockholm, Kungl. Boktryckeriet. P. A. Norstedt & Söner 1933, pp. 1–3 This largest and finest collection of icons outside Russia was supplemented in 1952 and put the Nationalmuseum among the leading museums in this field.
Family
Olof is the grandfather of the journalists
Robert Aschberg
Robert Aschberg (born 19 March 1952 on Kungsholmen, in Stockholm) is a Swedish journalist and media executive. He works for the Swedish television channel TV3. Robert Aschberg was a Maoist
Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a vari ...