Albert Kahn

Albert Kahn, born at Marmoutier, Bas-Rhin, France on March 3 1860, died at Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France on the night of November 14 1940, was a banker and French philanthropist.

He was born into a Jewish family, one of 5 children of his parents, Louis and Babette Kahn.

In 1879 he became a bank clerk in Paris but studied for a degree in the evenings. His tutor was Henri Bergson who remained his friend all his life. He graduated in 1881 and continued to mix in intellectual circles making friends with Auguste Rodin and Mathurin Méheut.

In 1892 he became a principal associate of the Goudchaux Bank which was regarded as one of most important financial houses of Europe.

In 1893 he acquired a large property in Boulogne-Billancourt where he established a unique garden containing a variety of garden styles including English, Japanese, a rose garden and a conifer wood. This became a meeting place for French and European intelligentsia until the 1930s when due to the wall street crash Kahn became bankrupt, the garden was turned into a public park in which Kahn would still take walks. Kahn died during the Nazi occupation.