George Weidenfeld, Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea GBE, was a distinguished publisher and philanthropist. Born in Vienna in 1919, he read law at the University of Vienna and studied at the Consular Academy, a diplomatic college where he learned several languages. In the summer of 1938, after his father’s arrest, Weidenfeld travelled to the UK, initially supported by Quakers, who also helped secure his parents’ entry before the outbreak of war.
He began his career as a political journalist at the BBC before founding the publishing house Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which brought out landmark works including Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and General de Gaulle’s memoirs.
As a philanthropist, Lord Weidenfeld was equally active and served as a Trustee on the board of various educational and cultural institutions including the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery and was Joint Chair of the Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School of Government. Throughout his life, he retained a deep intellectual curiosity and an unwavering belief in the power of education — the conviction that inspired him to found both Humanitas and the Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme. A firm believer in building bridges, he made friends and lasting connections all over the world, and remained, in his own words, “future oriented” — always at work on the next new idea.
The older I am, the more I think of the future. I can’t afford to sit back because I won’t be there.
Lord George Weidenfeld of Chelsea, GBE (1919-2016)
Lord Weidenfeld led an extraordinary and accomplished life of which the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust is just one of many of his legacies.