Widenmann, Hans A.

Hans A. Widenmann (1897-1976) was a stockbroker and economist with expertise in national and international monetary affairs. His successful business career was largely spent at Loeb, Rhoades & Company, and he was also frequently called upon to speak about international finance subjects.

Hans Adolf Karl Widenmann was born on December 15, 1897 in Hamburg, Germany to Adolf and Augusta Widenmann. In 1914, soon after the family relocated to the United States, Widenmann enrolled at Princeton University. He graduated with honors in economics in 1918. He earned his M.A. from Columbia University in 1919 and his M.Sc. from Columbia in 1920. Widenmann married Dorothy Hicks on April 2, 1927. They had a son Robert, who died during infancy, and a daughter Elizabeth Alice. Dorothy Hicks Widenmann died in 1949.

From 1919 to 1920, Widenmann was a member of the staff of the Division of Research and Statistics of the Federal Reserve Board in New York City. He then began his career on Wall Street, working for the Columbia Trust Company in the foreign department from 1920 to 1922 and in Europe from 1922 to 1923. In 1924, while still in Europe, Widenmann assisted Dr. Edwin W. Kemmerer, under whom he had studied economics at Princeton University, in developing the Dawes Plan in Berlin.

Widenmann returned to the United States in 1924, working again for a short time on the staff of the Division of Research and Statistics of the Federal Reserve Board, this time in Washington, D.C. He then returned to Wall Street for the duration of his career. From 1925 to 1930, he was an executive at the firm of Ludwig Bendix, an international banking and investment firm. In 1931, Widenmann joined the staff of Carl M. Loeb & Company, a brokerage firm. The firm later became Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Company, and then Loeb, Rhoades & Company. Widenmann was made a partner in 1940 and became a limited partner in 1971.

Widenmann was active in his field. He served as a lecturer on international exchange and foreign banking systems at the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Banking from 1930 to 1935. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange and the New York Cocoa Exchange, a governor of the Association of Stock Exchange Firms, and a member of the board of arbitration of the New York Stock Exchange. Widenmann was a delegate to and spoke at numerous international financial conferences throughout his career, notably the First Hemispheric Stock Exchange Conference in New York (1947) and subsequent conferences in Santiago, Chile (1948) and Santos, Brazil (1950). He also served as president of the Princeton University Class of 1918 from 1964 to 1976, was a member of the Alumni Council from 1963 to 1976, and served as a member of the advisory council of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1976. Widenmann died on November 24, 1976, at the age of 78.