Zachary Hochschild

Hochschild was born to a Jewish family, the son of Justina (née Bendheim) and Koppel Jakob Hochschild.[1] His brother was Berthold Hochschild (1860–1928) who later founded the American Metal Company.[1] Zachary worked as a youth for the Frankfurt metal company, Philipp Abraham Cohen and received in 1878, procuration or the authority to act on behalf of the company.[1] In 1881, Hochschild along with his brother-in-law Leo Ellinger and Wilhelm Merton took over the activities of Philipp Abraham Cohen and co-founded Metallgesellschaft AG in Frankfurt with 2 million Marks in share capital.[1] As Hochschild was a long term executive at Cohen, he was its sole member of the board.[1] Responsibilities were divided: Hochschild focused on marketing, trading, and international activities; Merton was responsible for business strategy; and Ellinger for operations.[2] Their main competition were the two other large metal trading companies of Germany: Aron Hirsch & Sohn in Halberstadt, and Beer, Sondheimer & Co in Frankfurt am Main, also closely held Jewish family companies.[2] Although Metallgesellschaft was a joint stock company, it was operated like a family business with key positions allocated to long-time loyal employees who were gradually rewarded with stock in the company.[2] He is credited with opening up the company to international sources of metals which satisfied German demand.[1] In 1884, Hochschild sent his brother Berthold to the United States to establish an operation.[3] In 1887, the American Metal Company was incorporated as a joint stock company in New York with 51% Metallgesellschaft ownership so as to facilitate local decision-making; Metallgesellschaft executive Jacob Langeloth was named its president.[2] In 1889, Hochschild saw the company through the Paris "copper crash".[1] In 1906, he was named as a member of the Supervisory Board of Berg- und Metallbank AG (renamed Metallbank und Metallurgische Gesellschaft AG in 1910) which became the primary financial institution supporting the trading business of Metallgesellschaft AG.[1]

In 1881, he married Philippine Ellinger; they had three daughters, Henriette (1882–1965) who married Rudolf Carl Euler in 1903.[1] He died on November 6, 1912 at the age of 58 in Munich.[1], Alice Gustine (1889-1948) who married Paul von Monakow and Anna Sarah (1891-1972) who married Paul Reiner. The sons of his cousin were Bolivian tin baron Mauricio Hochschild and Chilean mining magnate Sali Hochschild.[4] His nephews were American Metal executives Harold K. Hochschild and Walter Hochschild.