The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York

The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York published by Random House of Canada, is the  most revealing account yet of the reclusive, media-shy family who built  Olympia & York into a $10 billion real estate colossus. The rapid  fall of Olympia & York in 1992 shook the international business  landscape.

Bianco’s tour de force deftly captures one of the century’s most  intriguing business stories and places it in a broad social and  historical context. His account traces the Reichmanns from their  Hungarian roots to their escape from Nazi-occupied Europe and to their  ultimate arrival in Canada.

“The Reichmanns built one of the great family fortunes in the world  and lost it,” said Bianco, who had to resign from his position as senior  writer with BusinessWeek in New York to write the book. “The  Reichmanns, and Paul especially, are a throwback to an older, more  daring style of doing business. Paul is one of the great real estate  minds of modern history and he had an enormous appetite for risk, which  proved Olympia & York’s undoing in the end.”

In his book, Bianco reveals how the family straddled the disparate  worlds of casino capitalism and Jewish fundamentalism, starting with egg  merchant Samuel Reichmann who created the first family fortune in  Hungary and added to it as a currency trader in Tangier. Bianco contends  that the Reichmann sons were motivated by their mother Renee whose  heroic efforts helped rescue Jews trapped in occupied Europe. The  Reichmanns themselves narrowly escaped capture by the Nazis.
The Reichmanns is Bianco’s second book. A Random House editor who was involved in his first book, Rainmaker, which was about a Wall Street dealmaker, first suggested he tackle a book on the Reichmanns.

“At first, the family was reluctant to cooperate,” said the 44-year  old Bianco, who was mindful of the fact that a Canadian magazine once  found itself in a lawsuit after publishing a lengthy story about the Toronto-based family. “It took two and a half years to establish my  credibility with Paul Reichmann, but after I did I had a series of  lengthy interviews.”

Bianco also interviewed Edward and Louis Reichmann, and many other  members and acquaintances of the family. Bianco’s three-and-a-half year  foray into the Reichmann empire took him all over Europe and North  America as he personally visited every place they had ever lived. He  even hired translators in five different languages to help in his  research.