Emil Moritz Rathenau (11 December 1838 – 20 June 1915) was a German entrepreneur, industrialist, mechanical engineer. He was a leading figure in the early European electrical industry and founder of AEG. Early life Rathenau was born in Berlin, into a wealthy Jewish merchant family based on Viktoriastrasse by the Tiergarten, an old Jewish quarter of the city. His father Moritz Rathenau, was a grain trader who had moved to Berlin to set up business. His mother, Therese, was the daughter of Josef Liebermann, another businessman attracted to the growing opportunities of the burgeoning Prussian capital. Emil was particularly close to his mother, whom he regularly visited until her death in 1894. His parents families had met through the (Society of Friends), a cultural organisation played a central role amongst the prominent members . Emil undertook an apprenticeship in Silesia, working for a company owned by the Liebermann family. After four and half unhappy years he received a large inheritance following the death his grandfather, Josef Liebermann. This enabled him to gain a technical training in Hanover and Zurich, and then an appointment as a technical adviser for Borsig, a Berlin-based manufacturer for the railway sector. However he did not remain there long, and spent some time in England expanding his experience. Upon his return to Berlin, in 1866 he married , daughter of the Frankfurt banker Isaak Nachmann (1816–1870). Also in 1865 he joined an old school friend in taking over a small machine building factory in Berlin. Business career In 1865, Rathenau was a partner in a factory, during which time (while traveling abroad) he recognized the possibilities of the then newly emerging electrical technology. The dramatic victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War was ensued by a collapse, prompting Rathenau to sell up in 1873. A Grand Tour of Central and Eastern Europe took him to Vienna Science Exhibition, Philadelphia, and Paris. In 1881, he attended the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris and saw Thomas Alva Edison's invention of the light bulb for the first time. Realizing the potential of electricity, he acquired the rights to manufacture products based on Edison's patents with the help of a bank group. By 1907 AEG had become the largest commercial company in the world. The bank advised him to partner with his competitor Werner von Siemens. Since both were followers of the idea of monopoly they signed a contract of