Lehman co-founded the firm that became investment bank Lehman Brothers with his brothers Henry and Mayer.

Born in Bavaria, he joined Henry's dry-goods business in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1847; the firm took the name Lehman Brothers after Mayer joined in 1850.

• He moved to New York in 1858 to run the firm's first branch office, and the firm helped found the New York Cotton Exchange in 1870.

• Lehman Brothers grew into one of the largest U.S. investment banks before its bankruptcy in 2008.