KUHN-LOEB

KUHN-LOEB , U.S. immigrant dry-goods and clothing merchants in Cincinnati, who later became prominent investment bankers in New York. The firm Kuhn, Loeb and Co. was founded in 1867 by the brothers-in-law abraham kuhn (1819–1892) and solomon loeb (1828–1913) and included four other members of the family as partners. After Kuhn returned to Germany, Loeb became joint head of the firm with his son-in-law Jacob H. *Schiff. Schiff 's business acumen and negotiating ability brought great prosperity to the bank. He persuaded Kuhn, Loeb and Co. to provide financial aid to Japan but refused to lend money to the czarist government because of its treatment of the Jews. His successors followed his example and supported Jewish causes, such as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the American Jewish Committee and, after World War i, the Jewish Agency. Another of Loeb's sons-in-law, Paul M. *Warburg, entered Kuhn, Loeb and Co. in 1902 to join his brother Felix M. *Warburg, Schiff 's son-in-law, who had become a member of the firm five years previously and was later to become senior partner. Although after 1911 Kuhn, Loeb and Co. accepted partners from outside the family, over half a century later the senior partners, John M. Schiff and Frederick M. Warburg, were both grandsons and great-grandsons of Jacob *Schiff and of Solomon Loeb. A fifth-generation member of the firm, David T. Schiff, joined Kuhn, Loeb and Co. in 1967. Other members of the family were Dorothy *Schiff (1903–1989), newspaper publisher; and James P. *Warburg (1896–1969), economist and political analyst. Otto H. *Kahn (1867–1934), who was a member of the firm, became a patron of the arts. Kahn wrote the pamphlet The War and Business (1917).

bibliography:

Kuhn, Loeb and Co., Investment Banking through Four Generations (1955).

[Hanns G. Reissner]