British businessman and Baron (1919?2016)
The Lord Weidenfeld
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Weidenfeld at a German-Jewish Dialogue
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In office
25 June 1976 ? 20 January 2016
Life Peerage
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Born
| Arthur George Weidenfeld
13 September 1919
Vienna
, Austria
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Died
| 20 January 2016
(2016-01-20)
(aged 96)
London
, England
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Nationality
| Austrian, British
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Political party
| Labour
(until 1981)
SDP
(1981?88)
'Continuing' SDP
(1988?90)
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Spouses
|
Jane Sieff
(
m.
1952;
div.
1955)
(
m.
1956;
div.
1961)
Sandra Payson Meyer
(
m.
1966;
div.
1976)
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Children
| Laura Weidenfeld
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Parent(s)
| Max and Rosa Weidenfeld
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Occupation
| Publisher
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George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld
,
GBE
(13 September 1919 ? 20 January 2016) was a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was also a lifelong
Zionist
[1]
and renowned as a master networker. He was on good terms with popes, prime ministers and presidents and put his connections to good use for diplomatic and philanthropic ends.
[2]
Early life
[
edit
]
Weidenfeld was born in
Vienna
, Austria, in 1919.
[3]
He was born to an
Austrian-Jewish
family, the only son of Max and Rosa Weidenfeld.
[1]
Weidenfeld attended the
University of Vienna
and the city's Diplomatic College. Following the
Anschluss
(Germany's annexation of Austria) in 1938, he emigrated to London, with limited English and a 16/6d postal order (approximately £32.46 in 2019).
[4]
He began work with the monitoring service of the
British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC).
[3]
Career
[
edit
]
By 1942, he was a political commentator for the BBC and also wrote a weekly newspaper column, coming into contact with
General de Gaulle
and
Tito
as a result.
[5]
In 1949, Weidenfeld served for a year as the political adviser and Chief of Cabinet to
Chaim Weizmann
, the first President of Israel.
[5]
In that role, Weidenfeld launched a campaign to convince the world that Israel should keep western Jerusalem.
[6]
The city had been divided between Israel and the
Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan
after the two sides signed an
armistice agreement
earlier in the year.
Publishing career
[
edit
]
In 1948, Weidenfeld co-founded the publishing firm
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
with
Nigel Nicolson
. Intending to start an upmarket political magazine, a mix of the
New Statesman
,
Fortune
and
The New Yorker
, they found that the post-war paper shortage made a book publishing concern more feasible, and the new firm was partly intended as a cover for the impractical magazine.
[5]
Over the years, the firm published many outstanding titles, including the British edition of
Vladimir Nabokov
's
Lolita
in 1959 and Nicolson's biography of his parents,
Portrait of a Marriage
(1973).
In 1985, Weidenfeld's publishing interests expanded to the United States, when he acquired the
Grove Press
in partnership with
Ann Getty
(wife of
Gordon Getty
). Grove later merged with the New York division of Weidenfeld & Nicolson to form Grove Nicolson. In 1991 Weidenfeld & Nicolson's UK branch was sold to the
Orion Publishing Group
[3]
and became Orion's main non-fiction imprint, with Weidenfeld as non-executive chairman.
In 1993, the American company, Grove Nicolson, merged with the
Atlantic Monthly Press
to form
Grove/Atlantic Inc.
In 2005 he arranged the publication of
Memory and Identity
by
John Paul II
. Weidenfeld was also joint chairman of the advisory board of the
Blavatnik School of Government
in Oxford; adviser to the board of
Axel Springer AG
Berlin and a columnist for the Berlin newspapers
Die Welt
,
Welt am Sonntag
and
Bild Zeitung
. In January 2006 the
Institute for Strategic Dialogue
, founded as The Club of Three
[7]
[8]
in the 1990s, was established along with the Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme at Oxford and, in 2010, he founded the
Humanitas Programme
of visiting chairs at
Oxford
and
Cambridge
.
Philanthropy
[
edit
]
Weidenfeld served in many philanthropic capacities including chairman of the
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
(1996?2004), governor of the
Weizmann Institute
, vice-chairman of the EU-Israel Forum, member of the founding council of the
Rothermere American Institute
at the
University of Oxford
, trustee,
Royal Opera House
(1974?87) and trustee of the
National Portrait Gallery
(1988?95). He co-founded the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust
[9]
at Oxford University, one of the largest post-graduate scholarship programmes at Oxford. He also established the "Weidenfeld Safe Havens Fund", which intends
[
needs update
]
to support Christians fleeing the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
,
[10]
although its focus on Christians has caused some criticism.
[11]
Awards and honours
[
edit
]
Weidenfeld became a
British citizen
in 1947,
[12]
was
knighted
in 1969,
[13]
and created a
life peer
on 25 June 1976 taking the title
Baron Weidenfeld
, of
Chelsea, London
.
[14]
Originally taking the
Labour
whip, in 1981 he defected to the
Social Democratic Party
(becoming their arts spokesman in the Lords), and following the SDP's merger with the
Liberals
in 1988 opted to join
David Owen
's
'continuing' SDP
.
[15]
[16]
He was appointed
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
(GBE) in the
2011 New Year Honours
for public service.
[17]
Further honours included
honorary fellow
of
St Peter's College, Oxford
, honorary fellow of
St Anne's College, Oxford
, honorary fellow,
King's College London
, and honorary D.Litt. from the
University of Exeter
. He was made an honorary senator of
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat
, Bonn, in 1996 and awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters,
honoris causa
, by
Oxford University
in 2010. He was appointed
Knight Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
(1991), the
Austrian Cross of Honour First Class for Arts and Science
(2002), the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the County of Vienna (2003), the
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
(2005) and the
Order of Merit of Baden-Wurttemberg
(2008). The
Bene Merito honorary badge
was awarded by the
Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs
in 2011. He received the
London Book Fair
/Trilogy Lifetime Achievement Award for International Publishing in 2007 and the
Teddy Kollek
Life Achievement Award in Jerusalem in 2009.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Weidenfeld married Jane Sieff in 1952, daughter of
Israel Sieff, Baron Sieff
[18]
who was a part of the family that controlled
Marks and Spencer
. Before their divorce in 1955
[19]
they had a daughter,
[20]
Laura Weidenfeld (b. 1953).
After their divorce, he married
Barbara Skelton
(1916?1996), the
English
memoirist, novelist and socialite, in 1956, who had previously been married to
Cyril Connolly
.
[21]
His third marriage was to Sandra Payson Meyer (1926?2004) in 1966.
[20]
[22]
She was the daughter of Americans
Charles Shipman Payson
and
Joan Whitney
, of the
Whitney family
.
[23]
[24]
[25]
They divorced 10 years later in 1976.
[19]
His fourth and final marriage was to
Annabelle Whitestone
(born
c.
1946),
[26]
who was 26 years his junior, in 1992. They remained married until his death in 2016.
[3]
[27]
He was a staunch supporter of Israel and was described as an "adamantine
Zionist
". Among his friends were politicians
Angela Merkel
and
Kurt Waldheim
.
[28]
He died in London on 20 January 2016, aged 96
[29]
[1]
and was honoured with burial on the
Mount of Olives
in
Jerusalem
.
[30]
[28]
Arms
[
edit
]
Coat of arms of George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld
- Crest
- A demi-wolf reguardant Sable holding in its mouth a scroll Argent.
- Escutcheon
- Per fess Or and Vert a fess embattled Argent masoned Proper overall a weeping willow eradicated.
- Supporters
- Dexter an old man Proper bearded Argent habited in a gown and cap Sable supporting in his exterior hand a tablet Proper sinister a youth Proper habited in a blouse Argent and breeches Or boots and peaked cap Sable a rapier the scabbard Sable.
- Motto
- Cedant Arma Togae
(Arms Must Yield to the Gown)
[31]
|
Published works
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Alan Cowell
(21 January 2016).
"George Weidenfeld, British Publisher of
Lolita
and London Fixture, Dies at 96"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Gross, Tom (20 January 2016).
"A marvellous conversationalist who befriended them all"
.
The Jewish Chronicle
. Retrieved
20 January
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Oliver Marre,
"A man whose life has been an open book"
,
The Observer
, 28 June 2009.
- ^
"Lord Weidenfeld"
.
Desert Island Discs
.
BBC Radio 4
. Retrieved
28 April
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
Pollard, Stephen (23 July 2015).
"Lord Weidenfeld: It's far easier being 95"
.
The Jewish Chronicle
. Retrieved
20 January
2016
.
- ^
Sebag Montefiore, Simon (2011).
Jerusalem: The Biography
(1st American ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 578.
ISBN
978-0-307-59448-8
.
OCLC
763182492
.
Weizmann's chief of staff, George Weidenfeld, a young Viennese who had recently founded his own publishing house in London, launched a campaign to convince the world that Israel should keep west Jerusalem.
- ^
Europaeum
.
"Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue"
. Archived from
the original
on 4 October 2008.
- ^
Danny Fortson (7 September 2007).
"Bonfire of the vanities"
.
The Independent
. Archived from
the original
on 20 April 2013.
...the Club of Three, which despite the forboding [
sic
] name is a non-profit outfit dedicated to promoting 'broader understanding of political, social and economic developments within and between the three countries'. It does so by convening meetings in different European capitals of businessmen, academics and journalists from the UK, France and Germany.
- ^
"About the Trust"
.
Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust
. Retrieved
25 February
2019
.
- ^
"British Jew who fled Nazis funds rescue of Christians fleeing ISIS"
in
Haaretz
, 16 July 2015.
- ^
Danny Wiser,
"Jewish peer who fled Nazis funds operation to rescue Syrian and Iraqi Christians"
,
Catholic Herald
, 15 July 2015.
- ^
"No. 38019"
.
The London Gazette
. 18 July 1947. p. 3371.
- ^
"No. 44984"
.
The London Gazette
. 9 December 1969. p. 12245.
- ^
"No. 46949"
.
The London Gazette
. 29 June 1976. p. 8999.
- ^
"Obituary: Lord Weidenfeld",
The Daily Telegraph
, London, 21 January 2016, p. 25.
- ^
Sheila Gunn, "Diamond refuses to yield ground".
The Times
, 15 March 1988, p. 4.
- ^
"No. 59647"
.
The London Gazette
(Supplement). 31 December 2010. p. 6.
- ^
Oliver Marre (27 June 2009).
"Oliver Marre talks to George Weidenfeld, a man whose life has been an open book"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
a
b
Pick, Hella (20 January 2016).
"Lord Weidenfeld obituary"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
20 March
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"British Publisher and Mrs. Meyer Will Be Married; George Weidenfeld to Wed Niece of John Hay Whitney"
.
The New York Times
. 14 July 1966
. Retrieved
29 August
2023
.
- ^
Hoare, Liam (20 January 2016).
"George Weidenfeld, Inspirational Holocaust Survivor Who Funded Rescue of Christians From ISIS, Dies at 96"
.
The Forward
. Retrieved
28 April
2019
.
- ^
"Mrs. Meyer Is Wed to London Publisher"
.
The New York Times
. 30 July 1966
. Retrieved
29 August
2023
.
- ^
Saxon, Wolfgang (25 July 2004).
"Sandra Payson, 78, Influential Arts Patron"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
20 March
2017
.
- ^
"George Weidenfeld"
. Archived from
the original
on 23 July 2015
. Retrieved
22 January
2016
.
- ^
Nemy, Enid (21 December 1976).
"There Was Hardly Room to Admire Stars"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
20 March
2017
.
- ^
Harvey Sachs
Rubinstein: A Life
(1995), p. 84.
- ^
Elizabeth Grice (24 February 2005).
"In each of us, there's an element of snobbery"
.
The Daily Telegraph
.
- ^
a
b
"Obituary: George, Baron Weidenfeld, publisher and philanthropist"
.
The Economist
. 27 January 2016
. Retrieved
28 January
2016
.
- ^
Schudel, Matt (20 January 2016).
"George Weidenfeld, British publisher of
Lolita', politicos & a pope, dies at 96"
.
The Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
21 January
2016
.
- ^
"George Weidenfeld: The Dueling Cavalier Who Fought for Good and Compassion"
.
Haaretz.com
.
- ^
Debrett's Peerage
. 2003. p. 1648.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Richard Abel and Gordon Graham, eds.,
Immigrant Publishers: The Impact of Expatriate Publishers in Britain and America in the 20th Century
, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, 2009; Routledge, 2017.
- Harding, Thomas
(2023).
The Maverick
. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
ISBN
9781474621090
.
External links
[
edit
]
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