Ernest Oppenheimer: A Study in Power

A first edition, Some tears on the dustjacket - see photos- otherwise in excellent condition.

This book tells the story of a young German-Jewish boy, Ernest Oppenheimer, who left his father's store in Friedberg in 1896 and came to London in search of fame and fortune. 

Before going to South Africa, he served his apprenticeship in the diamond workshop of Anton Dunkelsbuhler of Hatton Garden. By astute manoeuvering and political intrigue he purchased control of the alluvial diamond fields of South West Africa and fought and won a titanic battle for the mastership of De Beers Consolidated Mines.

When he died in 1957 the Oppenheimer group of gold companies produced more than 16 per cent of the free world's output of gold, and controlled more than 90 per cent of world diamond sales.