Walter Rathanau was born on September 29, 1867 in Berlin, Germany. His father was Emil Rathanau, founder of Deutshe Edison-Gesellschaft, renamed Allegemeine – Elektrizitats Gesellschaft (AGE). He was supposed to follow his father's business. He was a person who encouraged Germans to go to other countries and find ways to improve their business. Causes In order to better understand what happened to Walther Rathenau, I need to include the way people thought about Jews since he was a Jew living in Germany. In the past, well before the 20th century, Jews were expelled from many places. They were rich people wherever they went. They were mistreated for many reasons, one of them being their religion. “Berlin's Jews never made up more than 5% of the city's population, but they managed to acquire highly visible positions of power and prestige. » They dominated the Werthim, Tietz and Kaufhaus Israel department stores. The newspaper Ullstein and Mosse was owned by Jews. At that time, being considered Jewish was a point of pride. In the first third of the 20th century, a quarter of the Nobel Prizes were won by German Jews. Jews controlled science and medicine. All the teachers were Jewish and if you were Jewish you would get the best job. If your lawyer was Jewish, you had a better chance of winning the case. If it was a job that would make more money, the Jews controlled those jobs. Others are afraid because the Jews had a lot of money and this would allow them to take over the world. Everywhere they went, they were chased. Most of the people in the place where they landed did not want to see other nationalities progress in their country and so expelled them. In 1489, the expulsion of the Jews was a topic of discussion...... middle of paper ...... because it was open and very slow. A man was driving him and a car passed him. In this car there were three men, one was driving the car and the other two were in the back seat. Rathenau was shot by Erwin Kern five times and shattered his jaw and spine. Then Hermann Fischer threw a grenade at Rathenau's car and left the scene. A nurse named Helene Kaiser was nearby and noticed that Rathenau was unconscious and dead. The police managed to capture the killers. Those who killed Rathenau feared that Jews like him wanted to take over the world. When the Nazis took over Germany, one person told Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin: "It was not for pigs like you that we slaughtered Rathenau!" » To send a message to the people who killed Rathenau, the Nazi marked the 11th anniversary of the assassination. They did this to let them know Hitler was on their side.