LANDAU, EUGEN

LANDAU, EUGEN (1852–1935), German banker and philanthropist, who was born in Breslau. He studied law and economics in preparation for entering his father's banking firm in Berlin, and subsequently became one of the partners. Establishing close connections with the city authorities, his bank became one of the principal agents in arranging for loans to the City of Berlin for its development. At 27, Landau was the founder and director of the Rechte Oderuferbahn-Gesellschaft, and played an important role in building its Silesian railroad. He had a large part in the establishment of the National Bank fuer Deutschland and its merger with the Breslau Disconto-Bank and the Bayerische Bank. He was instrumental in the organization of the Allgemeine Elektrische Gesellschaft (AEG), which emil and walter rathenau directed. In World War I Landau served as a major in Germany's Landwehr (Territorial Reserve), a rank which no other Jew who had not abandoned his faith had previously reached. For long Spain's honorary consul-general in Berlin, he used this post to strengthen relations between Spain and Germany. Landau took an active part in Jewish communal affairs. He contributed generously to Jewish social welfare institutions, among them the Juedische Altershilfe (aid for aged) and the Baruch Auerbach'sches Waisenhaus (orphanage). He helped to found and support the Keren Hayesod in Germany and was one of its vice presidents and president of the Pro-Palestine Committee. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Kaznelson, Juden im deutschen Kulturbereich (1959), 728–9; Wininger, Biog. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NDB, vol. 13 (1982), 482. (Morton Mayer Berman / Bjoern Siegel (2nd ed.)