Helmut Friedlaender

Who was Helmut Friedlaender?

Helmut Nathan Friedlaender was an American lawyer and financial adviser who collected rare books.

Friedlaender was born in 1913 in Berlin, Germany. In 1933 he fled to Lausanne, Switzerland afraid that Hitler was about to seal Germany's borders. It was at Lausanne that he received a doctorate in administrative law with a thesis on hydroelectric enterprises. After working at a London-based brokerage for some time where he had been an apprentice and learned international arbitrage.

After arriving in the United States on November 12, 1936, Friedlaender made arrangements for an interview at the investment banking firm of Abraham & Company. The 6-foot, 3-inch tall, 120-pound Friedlaender showed up for the interview wearing traditional attire for the London Stock Exchange, consisting of "striped pants, black jacket, gray tie, black bowler hat, dull black shoes and an umbrella that had never been unfurled". Hundreds of people passed through the reception room to gawk at "what was to all of them a very funny sight", but he got the job.

Friedlaender was an announcer for the Voice of America during World War II for its broadcasts to Europe.