Wallenberg family

The Wallenberg family (known as The Wallenbergs or simply Wallenbergs) is a prominent Swedish family renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats. The Wallenbergs are present in most large Swedish industrial groups, like Ericsson, Electrolux, ABB, SAS Group, SKF, AIK, Atlas Copco and more. In 1990 and subsequent years, the "Wallenberg sphere" controlled nearly one-third of the GDP of Sweden.

The most famous of the Wallenbergs, Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat, worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, he issued protective passports and housed Jews, saving tens of thousands of Jewish lives.

The earliest known member of the Wallenberg family is Per Hansson (1670–1741) who, in 1692, married Kerstin Jacobsdotter Schuut (1671–1752). Their son, Jakob Persson Wallberg (1699–1758) married twice. The children of his first marriage called themselves Wallberg and those of his second called themselves Wallenberg. Jakob Persson Wallberg was the great-grandfather of André Oscar Wallenberg who, in 1856, founded , the predecessor of today's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.

André Oscar Wallenberg's son Knut Agathon Wallenberg took over as CEO of in 1886. Like many other Wallenberg relatives, Knut Agathon Wallenberg was also involved in Swedish politics and diplomacy becoming Minister for Foreign Affairs 1914–1917, and member of the Riksdags first chamber (Parliament of Sweden) 1907–1919. In 1916, new legislation made it more difficult for banks to own shares in industrial companies on a long-term basis. Investor was formed as an investment part of .

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