W. Michael Blumenthal: "Around the World in Eighty Years. My Life"

Press Invitation to the Book Launch

Press Release, Thu 9 Sep 2010

The director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, W. Michael Blumenthal, presents his memoir, at the same time a personal account of the unsettled 20th century. Born in the Weimar Republic, he grew up in Berlin Mitte during the Third Reich and fled the Nazis with his family to the other end of the world, to Shanghai. He moved from there to the USA where he pursued a career in business and politics, as advisor to President Kennedy and Minister of Finance under President Carter amongst other things. In 1997 he followed the call of his hometown and returned to Berlin.

The Propyläen Publishing House and the Jewish Museum Berlin cordially invite you to attend the book launch with W. Michael Blumenthal and CICERO chief editor Michael Naumann. It will be held in the Glass Courtyard at the Jewish Museum Berlin on Thursday 30 September.

When	30 September 2010, 7.30 pm
Where	Glass Courtyard, ground level
Admission	free with numbered tickets only. Tickets are available at the cash desk.
Ticket reservation (for non-journalists)	Tel. +49 (0)30 259 93 587 or info@jmberlin.de

Kontakt: Press office
T +49 (0)30 259 93 419
presse@jmberlin.de
Address: Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation
Lindenstraße 9–14
10969 Berlin

The Autobiography

W. Michael Blumenthal, whose ancestors include Rahel Varnhagen and Giacomo Meyerbeer, was born in 1926 in Oranienburg. In his book "Around the World in Eighty Years. My Life," he powerfully describes his youth in Berlin in the Nazi era and his dramatic flight to Shanghai in 1939. Those years of great hardship in the completely overfilled city marked by the Chinese-Japanese war left a deep impression on him. He later referred to this period as a "school for life" that laid the foundations for his later successes. Following the end of the war and internment, he immigrated to the USA in 1947 where he studied at Berkeley and Princeton. Further steps in his career were a professorship for economics in Princeton (1953-56) and a senior management position with a commercial enterprise. He then spent the years from 1961 to 1967 as economic advisor at the US State Department under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

The dramatic Cold War years and racial segregation, the Vietnam War, the opening to China under the Nixon-Kissinger administration, and the years as Treasury Secretary (1977-79) in President Carter’s cabinet – these are described just as vividly as his return to the business world as chair of the Burroughs Corporation, at that time alongside IBM the leading corporation in the dawn of the computer age.

Be it as professor of economics, business manager, presidential advisor, or treasury secretary, Blumenthal has always been in the midst of current events. His book thus goes beyond personal anecdotes to unveil a panorama of the 20th century. The final chapter describes his return to Berlin, the city of his childhood and youth.

In 1997, the Berlin state invited W. Michael Blumenthal to become director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, which he opened in 2001. The impressions of erecting the Museum in the reunified city, encounters with friends such as Helmut Schmidt, Michael Naumann, and Friede Springer and observations on Jewish life in Germany today complete his autobiography.

W. Michael Blumenthal: "In achtzig Jahren um die Welt – Mein Leben" (Around the World in Eight Years – My Life) Translated from English by Klaus-Dieter Schmidt. Propyläen Publishers. 576 pages, 24.95 € (German). ISBN 978-3-549-07374-2. Launch on 1 October 2010.

For review copies, please contact Propyläen Publishers:

Birgit Ziller, Press and Public Relations

Tel.: +49 (0)30 234 56 434; E-mail: birgit.ziller@ullstein-buchverlage.de

The book launch at the Jewish Museum Berlin begins a large reading tour that will take W. Michael Blumenthal back to his place of birth, Oranienburg.