W. Michael Blumenthal

in 1943 Blumenthal was born in Oranienburg, Weimar Republic (present-day Germany), the son of Rose Valerie (née Markt) and Ewald Blumenthal. His family was of modest means as owners of a dress shop. With their little remaining money, his mother bought tickets for them to go to Shanghai, China, an open port city which didn't require a visa. They fled Germany on a passenger-carrying freighter shortly before war broke out in 1939. When the war in the Pacific ended in the summer of 1945, American troops entered Shanghai. He found a job as a warehouse helper with the U.S. Air Force, which benefited from his linguistic skills. With limited education, and now a stateless refugee, he did his best to make something of himself: ==Education==

Blumenthal found his first full-time job earning $40 per week as a billing clerk for the National Biscuit Company. He later enrolled at San Francisco City College and supported himself doing part-time work, including truck driver, night elevator operator, busboy and movie theater ticket-taker. He also worked as an armored guard and at a wax factory, where he filled "little paper cups with wax" from midnight until 8 a.m. In 1952 Blumenthal became a naturalized U.S. citizen. For income, his wife worked as a secretary and he taught economics at Princeton from 1954 to 1957. He also worked as a labor arbitrator for the state of New Jersey from 1955 to 1957. ==Career==

, James Schlesinger, Hamilton Jordan, Blumenthal, and Charles Schultze in the Oval Office in 1978 Blumenthal left Princeton University to join Crown Cork, a manufacturer of bottle caps, in 1957, where he remained until 1961 and rose to become its vice president and director. His nomination was unanimously confirmed. Blumenthal first met Carter in 1975 at a meeting of the Trilateral Commission in Japan. Although he was made chair of Carter's Economic Policy Group (EPG), and was Carter's chief economic policy official, he was still unable to chart economic policy or be recognized as the administration's chief economic spokesman. He instead had to share the role with those closer to the president, which caused confusion among outsiders and weakened Blumenthal's effectiveness. Blumenthal asked them to withdraw their troops "as quickly as possible," since it carried the "risk of wider wars." The Chinese were particularly impressed by Blumenthal's speech, adds Katz. And although the effect of his speech is not known, the Chinese army did withdraw a few weeks after his visit. In July 1979, Carter outlined his measures for dealing with the nation's economic and energy crisis, and at the same time asked five members of his cabinet, including Blumenthal, to resign. After resigning he joined Burroughs Corporation in 1980 as vice chairman, then chairman of the board a year later. After merging the company with Sperry Corporation, it became Unisys Corporation in 1986, with Blumenthal its chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). He remained with Unisys until 1990 when he stepped down after several years of losses to become a limited partner at Lazard Freres & Company, an investment bank located in New York. Having more free time, he taught economics courses at Princeton. In April 2016, he was one of eight former Treasury secretaries who called on the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union ahead of the June 2016 Referendum. ==Jewish Museum of Berlin==

In 1997, Blumenthal became the founding director of the Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany's then-new capital of the Federal Republic. His work began in December of that year, when he accepted an invitation from the city of Berlin to become president and chief executive of the Berlin Jewish Museum. The first Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded in 1933, but was closed in 1938 by the Nazi regime. The re-imagined museum includes displays documenting 2,000 years of the often-tragic chapters in German-Jewish history, including the Holocaust, and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. with the completion and opening of the Museum in 2001 being credited to his direction. The project has attracted considerable attention within and outside of Germany. In 1999 and 2006, Blumenthal was awarded Germany's Senior Medals of Merit for his services to the Federal Republic of Germany, in recognition of his work in Berlin. ==Personal life==

He married Margaret Eileen Polley, a teacher, in 1944, while attending college; they had three daughters: Ann, Jill, and Jane. They divorced in July 1977. He married his administrative assistant, Barbara Bennett in June 1983. Blumenthal was 57 and Bennett was 28. In 2008, he was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and pledged to back then-Senator Barack Obama. Blumenthal is featured in the 2020 documentary Harbor from the Holocaust. On January 3, 2026, Blumenthal turned 100. ==Awards and honors==

• Blumenthal was the recipient of Princeton University's Madison Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1979. • In 1980, he received the Horatio Alger Award from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. • In 1999, he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice, as well as the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. • In 2002, he received the Goethe Medal, Culture Prize of Berlin, and Berlin's Medal of Merit. • In 2013 Blumenthal received the Lucius D. Clay Medal, and Roland Berger Prize for Human Dignity. • In 2014 he received the Nachama Prize for Tolerance and Civil Courage, and in 2015, received the Jewish Museum Berlin's Prize for Tolerance and Understanding. • He was elected an honorary citizen of Berlin in 2015, as well as of Oranienburg, the city of his birth. • He was the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. • Blumenthal holds numerous honorary degrees from major U.S. universities. ==See also==