US Treasury Secretary, manager, museum director: Before his 100th birthday, Berlin honorary citizen W. Michael Blumenthal was honored with a festive lunch hosted by Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). Wegner honored Blumenthal for his outstanding contributions, especially to the Jewish Museum Berlin.
Such an institution is particularly important, especially in times of increasing anti-Semitism, said Wegner and promised Blumenthal: “We will do everything we can to ensure that people with a yarmulke or Star of David can walk safely through our streets in Berlin.”
Brandenburg Gate has special meaning
Blumenthal, born on January 3, 1926 in Oranienburg, was the founding director of the Jewish Museum from 1997 to 2014, which now regularly receives more than 700,000 visitors a year. Blumenthal’s Jewish family fled the National Socialists via Shanghai to the USA in 1939. Blumenthal became finance minister there in 1976.
Before lunch at Wegner’s, Blumenthal said he was not only an American, but also a Berliner. The Brandenburg Gate in particular has a special meaning for his family: his father was very proud of having stood guard there as a soldier during the emperor’s time. As US Treasury Secretary, he himself looked east with binoculars at the Brandenburg Gate during a visit to West Berlin – and an officer from the People’s Police in turn looked at him with binoculars. “We didn’t wave,” Blumenthal recalled.