Brilliant business family Wertheimers and Coco Chanel

Ernest Wertheimer (1852-1927) emigrated from Alsace to Paris in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. Ernest purchased an interest in the innovative theatrical make-up company, Bourjois. Later his sons Paul (1883–1948) & Pierre Wert­h­eimer (1888–1965) joined their dad in the family business, Bour­jois. In 1905, Pierre left for Lon­don and Paul moved to New York, making Bour­jois an international enter­pr­ise. Their Rochester NY facility manuf­actured and dist­rib­uted Helena Rubin­s­tein’s line face creams.

 Pierre (top) and Paul Wertheimer

Both brothers married in 1910, and both had babies. But the joy ended when the new fathers were mobilised in WW1. By the time the sons took over the company’s direct­or­ships, Bourjois became the largest cosmetic-fragrance com­p­any in France. In the next decade, Bourjois had already signed licences in 100+ countries – a huge success!

Pierre was also an avid horseman who began a great racing dynasty, important in the Wertheimer story because it was at Longchamp racetrack that Pierre Wert­heimer met Coco Chan­el. They were introd­uced by Théophile Bader, founder of Galeries Lafay­ette.

In 1922, Chanel’s #5 perfume was launched. It had been avail­ab­le to an elite clientele IN her excl­us­ive Paris bout­ique, but to market the perfume profession­ally, Coco needed someone with wide experien­ce in comm­erce, international business connections and ac­c­ess to large amounts of capital. In 1924 Pierre and Paul Wert­h­eimer became Coco's busin­ess partners in the House of Ch­an­el.

Would the perfume business have survived, had Chanel been alone? NO! For a 70% share of the company, the Wer­t­h­­eim­ers provided ALL financing for production, mar­keting and dist­rib­ut­ion of Chanel #5. Théophile Bader, who was selling Chanel #5 to the public in his Galeries Lafay­ette, was given a 20% share. Chanel herself received the other 10% of the stock, licen­s­ed her name to Parfums Chanel.

Chanel needed people who could help her career, including Ch­ris­t­ian Dior, Elsa Shiap­ar­elli, Yves Saint Laur­ent. But Chanel never mar­r­ied! In 1925, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke West­minster met Chan­el in Monte Carlo and purch­ased a London home for her in pres­t­ig­ious Mayfair dist­rict. In 1927 he gave her a parcel of land on French Riv­iera, to build her villa. This pro-German, anti-Semitic British Duke liai­son with Chanel lasted for 10 years, the same time Chan­el's friendship with Winston Ch­urchill also blos­­s­om­ed.

Chanel’s lover from 1930 until his death was des­ign­er- illustrator Paul Iribe (1883–1935). His art showed aggres­sive pat­riotism, fuelling anti-Semitism and fear of foreigners.

The Duke & Duchess of Windsor mar­ried in June 1937, combining their dislike of Jews, trade unions, soc­ial­ism, Freemasons & communism. The royal couple sett­led in Paris amid a gl­am­or­ous social set of designers, Nazi sympathisers, Am­er­ican heir­­es­ses, British ex-pats and idle rich. Including Coco Chanel!

WW2 brought the Nazi seizure of Jewish owned property and businesses, and antic­ip­­at­ing Nazi mand­ates against Jews, the Wert­heimers quickly protected their company. While still in France the brothers leg­ally turned control of Parfums Chanel over to a Christ­ian, French industrialist Felix Amiot. As Germany was invading France, the brothers fled to New York, where Estée Lauder (1908-2004) helped set them up.

From NY the brothers sent an American emissary, H Gregory Thomas, back to France with a mission: to get the formula for #5 and the main ingredients (jasmine oils) from Grasse. Thomas also helped Pierre's son Jacques escape to US.

Chanel had never been satisfied with the ownership contract so in May 1941, as the Occup­at­ion took half of France, she used her Vichy connections to try to force the brothers out of the con­tract. Calling the company abandoned, Chanel argued that company Les Par­fums Chanel had been Jewish prop­erty that should be confis­cated & redis­tributed solely back to her, an Aryan. Felix Amiot ensured she failed!

After middle-aged Coco Chanel closed her Paris fashion business, she con­tinued to live across the street at the plush Hotel Ritz, Nazi head­quarters in Paris. She soon began a romance with a young, athletic of­ficer named Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a Nazi propaganda officer

Coco Chanel and Gen Walter Schellenberg, chief of the Abwehr 

warhistoryonline

Chanel was also very close to Nazi Gen Walter Schel­l­en­berg, chief of SS intelligence. Clearly Chanel collabor­ated with this Abwehr ag­ent, hon­oured by Hitler & Goeb­b­els, and was herself recruited as an agent in­to Abwehr. It paid off! Chanel kept a car, driver and petrol all war: no one but a Vichy Min­ister had that!

Note that on several occasions, Félix Amiot was summoned by the Ges­tapo. But in Sept 1944, when Chanel was questioned by the Free French Purge Comm­it­tee, they had no documented evid­ence of her Ger­man collab­or­ation and had to release her. Per­haps Wins­ton Church­­ill inter­v­ened with the French government, via Viscount Duff Cooper, Brit­ish ambassador to the French provision­al government.

Coco esc­aped quietly to Switzer­land, and Felix Amiot turned Parfums Chanel back to the Werth­eimers.

So in the early 1950s, Pierre Wert­heim­er visited Chanel at the Beau Rivage hotel in Laus­anne and they came to a mutual agreement. Pierre gave her $9 million for her percentage of the perfume sales during the war. The tens of millions that she made later, thanks to this perfume, made her one of the richest women in the world. Her fut­ure share would be 2% of all perfume sales world­wide. Pier­re Wertheimer took full control of Chanel in 1954, paying for the remaining 20% from Théophile Bader’s fam­ily. Returning to Paris in 1954, Coco was back in Rue Cam­bon.

At 87 Chanel was busy working but died in Jan 1971 and was buried in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne. When she died without family, who inh­erited the business? In the ultimate irony, her old perfume company part­ners, Pierre & Paul Wertheimer, did. When they died, the company was passed down to Pierre’s son Jacques Wertheimer, and then to Jacques’ sons, Alain & Gerald Wert­heimer. In 1983 German fashion designer Karl Lag­er­feld (1933-2019) became, and remained Chanel’s creat­ive dir­ect­or.

Wartime Sites in Paris: 1939-1945 by Steven Lehrer is excellent for Wertheimer family history.