Werner Michael Blumenthal (born January 3, 1926) is a German-American business leader, economist and political adviser who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979.

As a member of the Carter administration, he helped guide economic policy and took part in re establishing ties with China.

After he resigned, he became chairman and CEO of Burroughs Corporation and Unisys, followed by seventeen years as director of the restored Jewish Museum in Berlin.

[3] As a result of the Nazi party's Nuremberg Laws, which took effect in 1935, his family began to fear for their lives and realized they had to escape from Germany.

[2] Blumenthal recalled Kristallnacht, a series of coordinated attacks against Jews and their property which began throughout Germany on November 9, 1938, when he was 12 years old:[2] I clearly remember ... when they came and smashed all the Jewish stores.

"[4] With their little remaining money, his mother bought tickets for them to go to Shanghai, China, an open port city which didn't require a visa.

I saw that life can be unfair, that titles, possessions, and all the trappings of position and status are transitory, that they are not as important as one's own inner resources in the face of hard times, personal setbacks and defeats.

[3] He was able to find a cleaning job at a chemical factory and earned $1 a week, which was used to feed his family:[2] I was confined to a faraway corner of Asia, so destitute that newspapers were stuffed into my shoes to cover up the holes ...

[3]Blumenthal found his first full-time job earning $40 per week as a billing clerk for the National Biscuit Company.

He later enrolled at San Francisco City College and supported himself doing part-time work, including truck driver, night elevator operator, busboy and movie theater ticket-taker.

[6]: 25 Blumenthal was offered a scholarship to attend the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, in New Jersey.

[6]: 26 Blumenthal left Princeton University to join Crown Cork, a manufacturer of bottle caps, in 1957, where he remained until 1961 and rose to become its vice president and director.

"[2] In 1967, Blumenthal left government to join Bendix International, a manufacturing and engineering company specializing in auto parts, electronics and aerospace.

[6]: 27  That June, he traveled to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Paris headquarters for its annual conference, with its main agenda concerned with how Western powers would manage the sluggish recovery after the deep recession of 1974-75.

[11] Carter subsequently invited him to his home knowing his talents as a successful business manager and negotiator, and knew Blumenthal would offer him sound economic advice.

"[3] As Secretary of the Treasury, however, he was never made a member of Carter's "inner circle," and his responsibilities were never clearly defined, writes historian Burton Ira Kaufman.

[5][page needed] His experience living in Shanghai is considered to have been an important factor in Chinese leaders inviting him, instead of a State Department official.

He explains: Our visit was an opening move in the slow, carefully managed, renewed coming together of China and the United States, haltingly begun with many fits and starts in the early seventies, and culminating nine years later with the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations (in which I would be destined to play an official role.

[12][page needed] Blumenthal asked them to withdraw their troops "as quickly as possible," since it carried the "risk of wider wars.

In July 1979, Carter outlined his measures for dealing with the nation's economic and energy crisis, and at the same time asked five members of his cabinet, including Blumenthal, to resign.

He remained with Unisys until 1990 when he stepped down after several years of losses to become a limited partner at Lazard Freres & Company, an investment bank located in New York.

[6]: 29 [15] In April 2016, he was one of eight former Treasury secretaries who called on the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union ahead of the June 2016 Referendum.