[Knut Agaton]. Swedish statesman, born in 1853, the eldest son of André Oscar Wallenberg (1816–1886), who in 1856 founded Stockholms Enskilda Bank. He went through the training of a naval officer, but in 1874 joined the directorate of the bank, was managing director during the years 1886–1911, and became chairman in 1917. This bank, under the control of K. A. Wallenberg and his brother Marcus, took a prominent place in the Swedish banking world and in the industrial life of the country. Through their good connections abroad both brothers contributed much toward enabling Sweden to establish good economic relations with other countries. Both have played an important rôle in the developing of the iron-ore industry in northern Sweden. K. A. Wallenberg, in conjunction with the Credit Lyonnais, introduced Swedish bonds into the French market in 1890, and during two decades he cooperated powerfully in taking up Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish state loans. In the Banque d’État de Maroc, which resulted from the Algeciras Conference, K. A. Wallenberg had a hand as a member of the governing board in Paris, a position in which he was succeeded in 1920 by his brother Marcus. K. A. Wallenberg was concerned in the founding of the Banque des Pays du Nord in Paris in 1911, and also in that of the British Bank of Northern Commerce in London in 1912, which in 1920 was amalgamated with C. J. Hambro & Son as Hambro’s Bank of Northern Commerce, known as Hambro’s Bank Ltd. since July 1, 1921. He was a member of the town council of Stockholm from 1883–1914, a member of the First Chamber of the Riksdag from 1906–19, chairman of the Swedish Bankers’ Association (“Svenska bankförening”) from 1909–14, and a member of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce from 1912–4 and again from 1918 onwards. He was one of the founders of the commercial high school (“Handelshögskolan”) in Stockholm and its first donor. When Hammarskjöld formed his Government in 1914, K. A. Wallenberg joined it as Foreign Minister, retaining this post until 1917. In 1918 he and his wife devoted 25 million kroner to the “Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation,” the purpose of which was to further religious, social, scientific and educative movements and to support trade and industry.
His brother, Marcus Wallenberg (1864–1943), became an officer in the navy, and, after juridical studies and practice, joined the directorate of Stockholms Enskilda Bank and became managing director 1911–20, and later chairman. He founded or reorganized a large number of industrial enterprises, taking a chief part, for instance, in the financing of the mining-fields of northern Sweden, and founding in 1905 Norsk Hydro-elektrisk Kvaelstof Aktieselskab in Norway, of which he became chairman. He was one of the founders of the Norwegian Central Bank, of the Swedish Bankers’ Association, and the Industrial Union of Sweden (“Sveriges industriförbund”), besides having taken the initiative in founding the Taxpayers’ Association (“Skattebetalarnes förening”) in 1920. He became a member of several committees on banking and stock exchange questions, and a member of the Economic Council. The Swedish Government sent him to London as Swedish negotiator in 1916–7 and 1917–8 for bringing about an agreement with the Allied Powers regarding trade and shipping and finance questions. He was a member of the Neutral Powers’ financial section of the Supreme Economic Council from February to June 1919 in Paris, took part in the meeting at Amsterdam in 1919 which arranged for the International Financial Conference in Brussels in 1920, at which he was Sweden’s representative. He was a member of the Committee of the Economic and Financial section of the League of Nations.
