André Oscar Wallenberg founded Stockholms Enskilda Bank, which has become one of Sweden s major banks, in the mid 19th century. After a banking crisis in 1878 79, two of his sons, Knut and Marcus Sr, managed to restore the family s sphere. When other banks and investment companies had been seriously hit by two world wars and the intervening collapse of Ivar Kreuger s enterprises, the Wallenbergs were best fitted for the prosperous post-war era. They soon dominated Sweden s financial world as well as its expanding export industry.
In Wallenberg The Family that Shaped Sweden s Economy, Gunnar Wetterberg traces the history of an outstanding Swedish family. He tells of political complications and financial brainwaves and presents the family s leading men and their feuds. Wetterberg relates the history of the Wallenbergs as a financial dynasty, intertwined with Sweden s development into a modern industrial nation. In no other country has a single family had such a strong and multi-facetted position for so many years.
Gunnar Wetterberg, born 1953, is a historian and author, initially a diplomat. Besides heading the 1992 and 1995 Medium-term Surveys at Sweden s Finance Ministry, he has been a director of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Head of the Research & Policy Department at the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations. He was awarded the Duke Charles Prize for his biography of the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (1583 1654) and the Kunskaps Prize for erudition in 2008. He holds an honorary doctorate at the Arts Faculty of Lund University and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.