Rockefeller family fortune

How rich is the Rockefeller family?

The name Rockefeller is associated with one of the richest men in the world. That reputation goes mainly to the billion dollar John D. Rockefeller Sr. However, his brother and business partner William also holds a respectable place among the richest Americans of all time. What is less well known, however, is that the Rockefeller family even began in Germany. Forbes calculated the wealth of the Rockefeller family. The cherished The Rockefeller family has assets of 10 billion euros.

The great fortune of the Rockefellers

In 1913 the fortune of the Founding father of the dynasty, John D. Rockefeller, around $ 900 million. If you factor in inflation, that $ 900 million would be worth around $ 23 billion today. Back then, people were a lot poorer and the markets were even smaller, and if you take that into account, his fortune was worth a lot more. That fortune would be worth $ 300 billion today, according to Forbes. You have to give credit to the founding father for supporting many charitable projects with his fortune.

The current total fortune of the Rockefeller family is estimated at 10 billion euros, according to Forbes. The one at that time Property of the founding father of the dynasty, John D. Rockefeller would be equivalent to $ 300 billion today. The personal fortune of the late family patriarch David Rockefeller (born 1915, † 2017) at his death was an estimated 3.3 billion US dollars. As if the Rockefeller family weren’t big enough yet, they allied themselves with the powerful Rothschild family and joined their wealth management team in 2012. Thus the most powerful and richest families have created an alliance that further expands their power. This expanded the empire of the two families even further.

Billionaire David Rockefeller (1915-2017)

David Rockefeller was born in Manhattan in 1915. His grandfather was the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. However, on March 20, 2017, David Rockefeller’s life came to an end. He died of heart failure in his New York home at the age of 101. The sprightly patriarch was seen in public well into old age. In 2015 he celebrated his 100th birthday with his family. the Billionaire was worth a whopping $ 3.3 billion, this corresponds to around 3 billion euros.

David Rockefeller had enjoyed a luxurious life with his six children and his wife Margaret, who passed away in 1996. However, he was also very charitable and has undertaken to surrender at least 50 percent of its assets. The billionaire also published an autobiography about his exciting life. He once told Forbes magazine that he knows he’s been very lucky. He added: “I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to a beautiful life, but if you don’t have friends and family, life becomes empty and sad and material things are no longer important”.

From Rhineland-Palatinate to the New World

the The history of the Rockefeller family begins in Rockenfeld, a former settlement on a ridge between the Rhine and Westerwald. The place, which only exists as a desert, is now part of the Feldkirchen district in Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate. Gotthart Rockenfeller was born here in 1590. His grandson Johann Peter (1682 – 1763) as well as his great grandson Johann Thiell (1695 – 1769) followed the call of the New World and emigrated to America with their families. There it was renamed to the Rockefeller family. Johann Peter’s great-grandson Godfrey Lewis Rockefeller (1783/84 – 1857) married Lucy Avery from Connecticut in 1806, who had ancestors right up to the English royal family. From this marriage arose the son William Avery Rockefeller (1810-1906), who then formed the parents of the legendary John Davison Rockefeller with his wife Eliza Davison (1813-1889).

Wealth of John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

John Davison Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, the second of 6 children. His entire life he kept the secret of his father, who had the reputation of a traveling quack. That didn’t change the fact that John Davison was brought up well. He showed himself to be business-minded at an early age, raising turkeys, selling sweets and hiring out in the neighborhood. In 1855 he started as an apprentice at Hewitt & Tuttle, where he worked his way up to an accountant. In 1858 he finally left the company and became a partner in a trading house in Cleveland.

The great oil boom of the 19th century also hit the young Rockefeller. In 1863 he and a partner founded a successful oil refinery in Cleveland. This became In 1870 the Standard Oil Company, which was the largest oil refinery in the world until 1911. Standard Oil quickly gained a monopoly by buying up other refineries and building a strong international sales structure. Several subsidiaries were created in this way. In 1882 the various branches merged to form the Standard Oil Trust, which controlled 90% of the national refineries and pipelines. In the same year the company headquarters was relocated to New York. A law passed by the American Congress in 1890 – the Sherman Antitrust Act – restricted the scope of monopolies and resulted in a reorganization of Standard Oil. Nevertheless, in 1906 there was an indictment of violating the Antitrust Act, which was finally upheld in 1911. This led to the break-up and separation of the company into more than 30 individual companies.

The Rockefeller family empire

Has got a name John D. Rockefeller, considered one of the richest men of all time, also a philanthropist and generous donor did. A property that has become a tradition of the Rockefeller family. According to grandson David Rockefeller, donations from family members and the in-house foundation amount to several billion dollars. The Rockefeller family was and is primarily active in the fields of culture, education and upbringing. The Rockefeller family has built a huge empire that includes many companies.

ExxonMobil

The mineral oil company founded in 1999 can be regarded as the direct successor to the Standard Oil Company. The unbundling of Standard Oil, decreed in 1911, split the company into 34 individual companies. Two of these were the Anglo-American Oil Company and the Standard Oil Company of New York. This resulted in Exxon and Mobile Oil – both eventually became ExxonMobil.

Revenue: $ 226.1 billion (2016), $ 244.36 billion (2017)
Profit: $ 8.4 billion (2016), $ 19.85 billion (2017)

Chase Manhattan Bank / JP Morgan Chase & Co.

The Bank of the Manhattan Company, founded in 1799, then merged with the Equitable Trust Bank of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1930. In 1955 the company merged with Chase National Bank to form Chase Manhattan Bank. This became part of the Chase Manhattan Corporation in 1969 under the direction of David Rockefeller. In 2000, the Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with JP Morgan & Co. Incorporated to form JP Morgan Chase & Co. Bank.
JP Morgan Chase & Co. today has a network of around 50,000 correspondent banks and is one of the largest investment banks in the world.
Revenue: $ 117.55 billion (2017)

The Rockefeller Group

Which was based in New York Rockefeller Group is mainly active in the real estate business there and has completed some of the largest real estate projects in the US in the past 80 years. The initial spark of their activity at that time was the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York. Under the name Metropolitan Square Corporation, it was responsible for the construction of the first 14 buildings of the high-rise complex between 1931 and 1940 (cost: 100 million US dollars). Today there are also 21 high-rise buildings belonging to the Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is the significant legacy of philanthropist John D. Rockefellers. It was founded in 1913 by father and son (John D. Rockefeller Jr.). Other founding members included Frederick Taylor Gates, Rockefeller Sr.’s advisor and asset manager. After all, the aim of the foundation was to serve the welfare of humanity worldwide. Today the Rockefeller Family Foundation is active in the fields of culture, education, science and health, among other things. This gives it the reputation of being one of the most influential non-governmental organizations.
Estimated Foundation Assets: $ 3.4 billion

Activities in upbringing, culture and education

The Rockefeller family has made its mark in the areas of education and culture in particular. Her work is linked to the following institutions:

• Rockefeller University
• Museum of Modern Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Lincoln Center
• United Nations
• University of Chicago
• Spelman College
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• United Negro College Fund
• Asia Society
• National Museum of the American Indian