Is Klaus Schwab Jewish?

Rumors of a "secret Jew mother" are circulating

Claim

Klaus Schwab is Jewish, and his mother is a Rothschild.

Background

Klaus Schwab is the German-born founder of the influential World Economic Forum. For a summary of why many people oppose Schwab and his organization, read this.

As criticism of Schwab and the WEF has grown, interest in Schwab's origins has grown. Some internet commentators have asserted that Schwab is Jewish, or that his biological mother was secretly Jewish.

Reality Check: Totally False

Klaus Martin Schwab was raised in a Christian family that supported the Nazi regime. His father was married twice, and although neither woman was Jewish, the first wife has a similar name to a completely unrelated Jewish woman who emigrated to the United States in 1938.

In 1926, Klaus Schwab's father, Eugen Wilhelm Schwab, married divorcee Emma Gisela (Kilian) Tekelius in a Lutheran wedding ceremony. Emma Gisela Kilian's birth certificate is a matter of historical record, and it states that her birthplace was Karlsruhe, and her religion is NOT Jewish.

Eugen and Emma had one son, Hans Ernst Schwab, in 1927. They later divorced, and Eugen married Erika Epprecht, the daughter of a wealthy Swiss Christian family. Klaus was born on March 30, 1938 to Eugen and Erika.

During the Nazi era, Eugen Schwab managed a factory in Ravensburg for the Swiss firm Escher-Wyss. This Ravensburg branch of Escher-Wyss used forced labor, mainly by prisoners of war, supported the German war effort, and was named a "National Socialist Model Company" by the Nazi party.

The name "Schwab" is neither Jewish nor Christian. It is a regional surname, originally associated with the medieval dukedom of Swabia in Southwestern Germany. Because of centuries of migration within Germany, it is common to find Schwab families of all backgrounds throughout the country.

One such family has been falsely linked with Klaus Schwab to support the assertion that Schwab's mother was Jewish. In 1938, a Jewish merchant named Bernhard Schwab emigrated to the United States with his wife Gisela Schwab and their young son Ludwig. We know this because they arrived in Ellis Island on December 9, 1938, and their ethnicity is listed as "Hebrew" on the immigration record. Commentators have proposed that this Gisela Schwab is actually Klaus Schwab's mother, Emma Gisela. In reality, this is clearly a completely different person. Her first name is Gisela not Emma, her maiden name is Schoenberg not Kilian, her birthplace is Graefenr not Karlsruhe, and her last name is Schwab because she is married to a man who is clearly not Klaus Schwab's father.