George Weidenfeld

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

Arthur George Weidenfeld (Lord Weidenfeld) (13 September 1919 – 20 January 2016) was a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, having joined on the 25 June 1976. Born in Vienna, Weidenfeld left Austria for England in 1938. During World War II he worked with the BBC Overseas Service, mainly as News Commentator on European Affairs, and in 1945 founded the publishing firm, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, with Nigel Nicolson.

In 1949 he became Political Advisor and Chef de Cabinet in Israel to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and spent a year in this capacity before returning to Britain and publishing.

Writing for the New Statesmen in 2002, Dennis Sewell claimed that Weidenfeld, 'a serious operator at the level of government, editors and media proprietors', often used his influence to try and prevent critical media coverage of Israel.

Weidenfeld has published works of many important international historians and biographers and the memoirs of some of the most prominent politicians of his generation, including General de Gaulle, Dr. Konrad Adenauer, Harold Wilson, Golda Meir, President Johnson, Moshe Dayan, Dr. Henry Kissinger and Shimon Peres.

Affiliations

• Founder Club of Three | EastWest Institute, Board member | European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism | German-British Forum | Institute for Strategic Dialogue | Jerusalem Foundation, UK Trustee | New Atlantic Initiative | The New World Order Forum | Institute for Human Sciences/Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, Patron | Among other appointments he is Chairman of Weidenfeld & Nicolson; President of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue; Director of Cheyne Capital Management; Honorary Chairman, Board of Governors, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Board Member of Herbert Quandt Foundation Bad Homburg, Consultant to the Bertelsmann Foundation and columnist for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag (Berlin). | MEMRI - Board of Advisors | Israel, Britain and the Commonwealth Association - Honorary Member

Interests

• Orion Publishing Group
• Member, European Advisory Board, Investcorp Inc, New York/London (investments)
• Member, Advisory Board, Access Industries Inc (US-based industrial group)
• Public affairs consultant, Burda Medien Vertreib, Munich
• Member, Board of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Former interests

• GAM Worldwide Inc (global asset management), deleted from parliament profile on the 17 June 2011
• Member, Advisory Board, Foster & Partners (architects), deleted from parliament profile on the 17 June 2011
• Member, Advisory Board, Lightyear Capital LLC (investment firm), deleted from parliament profile on the 17 June 2011
• Member, Advisory Board, C 12 Capital Management LLP, deleted from parliament profile on the 09 September 2014