Otto Kahn

In the early decades of the twentieth century, almost everyone in modern theater, literature, or film knew of Otto Kahn (1867–1934), and those who read the financial press or followed the news from Wall Street could scarcely have missed his name. A partner at one of America’s premier private banks, he played a leading role in reorganizing the U.S. railroad system and supporting the Allied war effort in World War I. The German-Jewish Kahn was also perhaps the most influential patron of the arts t