SUDDEN DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 11

SUDDEN DEATH

INTERNATIONAL BANKER EXPIRES AT LUNCHEON TABLE (Received March 30, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 29 The sudden death occurred to-day of Mr. Otto Kahn, international financier, and, after Mr. J. P. Morgan, the bestknown banker in America. He died while at luncheon in his firm's dining room in Wall Street. Noticing that Mr. Kahn was ill officials and attendants rushed to his side, but he expired almost immediately, apparently from a stroke of apoplexy. He had been enjoying excellent health. Only last evening he was a guest at a dinner in honour of Sir George Paish, British economist, where he took a lively part in the conversation, and was in notably good spirits.

The late Sir. Otto Hermann Kahn was born at Mannheim, Germany, in 1867. His father had been among those who fled to the United States after the unsuccessful revolution of 1848, and became an American citizen, but returned to Germany 10 years later. Deceased was educated at Mannheim and, after a year's service in the German Army, entered a banking house. For five years he was employed in the London branch of the Deutsche Bank and became a British subject. In 1893 he went to the United States and for two years held a position in the house of Speyer and Company, New York, In 1896 he married Miss Addie Wolff and, after travelling in Europe, joined the famous firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Company in New York, where he soon became one of the most notable financiers. Keenly interested in music, Mr. Kahn gave much assistance to talent and took a leading part in promoting operatic enterprises, both in America and England. He was president and chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Company.

New York, and of the French Theatre there, a director of the Boston Opera Company, the Chicago Opera Association, and the Royal 'Opera Company, Covent Garden, and vice-president of the Shakespeare Tercentenary Committee of New York. During and after the war Mr. Kahn took up a strongly anti-German attitude. Early in 1914 ha bought St. Dunstan's, Regent Park, London, but before he had taken up residence there the war broke out, and he gave the mansion to Sir A. Pearson as a hospital for blinded soldiers. In one of his books, "Right Above Race" (1918), he dealt with the question of war guilt. He also wrote ''Our Economic Problems" (1920), "Two Years of Faulty Taxation" (1920), and "Of Many Things" (1926), in which ho expressed his great " admiration of England's achievement in weathering the effects of the war. Mr. Kahn, who became an American citizen in 1917, was made a Commander of the Lesion of Honour in 1918 and also received Italian and Belgian orders. His wife is one _of the bestknown literarv hostesses in New York. He was a director of the American Federation of Arts and vice : president of the English-Spoaking Union.