(born Sept. 29, 1867, Berlin, Prussia—died June 24, 1922, Berlin, Ger.) German industrialist and statesman. From 1915 he headed the AEG conglomerate developed by his father, Emil Rathenau (1838–1915).
In World War I he organized the conservation and distribution of raw materials for the War Ministry. In 1918 he cofounded the liberal German Democratic Party and supported cooperation with the Social Democratic Party. After serving as minister of reconstruction (1921–22), he was appointed foreign minister and negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union. Reviled by extreme nationalists as a Jew and a promoter of “creeping Communism,” he was assassinated.
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