Guido Goldman

Guido Goldman (November 4, 1937 – November 30, 2020) was a Swiss-born American academic and philanthropist known for advancing post–World War II US-Germany academic and cultural relations. He was a co-founder of the German Marshall Fund and also set up the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Early life Goldman was born in Zürich, Switzerland, on November 4, 1937, to Alice (née Gottschalk) and Nahum Goldmann. His father was a leader in the Zionist Movement, and a co-founder of the World Jewish Congress. His mother, Alice, was a painter and heiress to a family fortune. His family fled Berlin after they received a tip that the Gestapo had searched his father's office. The family moved to New York in 1940 fleeing Nazi persecution. His father, in his role as the president of the World Zionist Organization, was a champion for Israeli independence at the United Nations and was an inspiration for Goldman to champion civil rights activism through the 1960s and 1970s.

Building on his inheritance from his mother's side, he was a real-estate investor and a private investment manager in the 1970s and 1980s. He contributed to children's rights activist Marian Wright Edelman who was the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, and other civil rights activists including Harry Belafonte.

Co-founder and director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University Founding chair and chairman of the board, German Marshall Fund Director, Program for the Study of Germany and Europe, CES, Harvard University Senior fellow and faculty associate, CES, Harvard University

Personal life Goldman remained a bachelor for life. He died on November 30, 2020, at his house in Concord, Massachusetts, at the age of 83.