Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812)

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The father of the House of Rothschild

Mayer Amschel (Anselm) Rothschild, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1744, was the founder of the famous House of Rothschild and its banking empire, which spread across most of Europe.

Eldest son Amschel Mayer Rothschild (1773–1855) took over his father's bank (M.A. Rothschild & Söhne) in 1815.

Mayer Rothschild’s five sons later helped spread the Rothschild (“red shield”) name beyond Frankfurt to London, Naples, Paris, and Vienna. All five Rothschild sons were made barons by Austria in 1812, receiving the right to use “von” (the German term of nobility) in front of their names. Later Rothschilds were involved in helping to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Forbes Magazine places Mayer Rothschild in seventh position on its list of the 20 most influential businessmen of all time. From Forbes.com:

Rothschild helped invent modern banking by introducing concepts such as diversification, rapid communication, confidentiality and high volume. The superlatively discreet foreign-exchange banker diversified from the very beginning, selling antiques and procuring loans. Remarkably, Rothschild was willing to cut into his own profits in order to secure future business. And, earlier than most, he understood that time and information meant money, and he pulled out all the stops to remain in constant contact with associates across Europe.

Mayer Rothschild and his wife Gutle (nee Schnapper, 1753-1849) had 20 children, ten of whom survived infancy – five sons and five daughters. Over the years Mayer carefully placed his sons (“the five arrows”) in key positions to eventually establish a Rothschild banking empire that spread out from Frankfurt across much of Europe, including Austria, England, France and Italy. The five Rothschild males were distributed thus:

Germany
The eldest son, Amschel Mayer Rothschild (1773-1885), ran the family’s Frankfurt bank after his father’s death in 1815.

Austria
The second son, Solomon Mayer Rothschild (1774-1885), founded the Rothschild bank in Vienna. The Creditanstalt bank was run by the Rothschild family until the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s.

England
The third son, Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836), went to England in 1798 to run a branch of the family’s textile business there, the first family enterprise outside Germany. In 1811 he established the N.M. Rothschild & Sons bank in London.

Italy
Son number four, Calmann (Carl) Mayer Rothschild (1788-1855), founded the Rothschild bank in Naples. With Italian unity in 1863, the Naples bank (and its Austrian connections) closed down.

France
The youngest son, Jacob (James) Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868), went to Paris in 1811 to run the Rothschilds’ interests there.

The Origins of the Rothschild Name and Dynasty
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the German Jewish son of a money changer, and the man who would become the patriarch of the Rothschild dynasty, was born in Frankfurt’s Jewish ghetto, known as the Judengasse or “Jew lane/alley.” Although he and his sons would later become wealthy and influential, in those times he was not even allowed to buy property outside of the ghetto.

In the 16th century, houses in the Judengasse were not marked with numbers, but with various colored signs or symbols. For generations the family had lived in “the house of the red shield” (Haus zum Rothen Schild). By the 17th century the family had already taken its Rothschild (ROTE-shilt) surname from that designation, even after they had moved to another building.

The Rothschild legacy today
There is no longer a large, centrally controlled Rothschild banking empire today, but the Rothschild name lives on in three different financial firms that are controlled by various branches of the Rothschild family.

The largest of these is Paris-Orléans SA, a French holding company that traces its beginnings to a railroad company founded in 1838 and the 2008 merger of the British and French banking concerns that grew out of that. The Rothschild family controls 58.1 percent of the firm’s shares.

The Swiss Groupe LCF Rothschild was founded in 1953 by Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild. The group is involved not only in banking, but also has hotels, real estate and vineyards. One of its key operations is the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild in Geneva.

RIT Capital Partners PLC was founded in London in 1961 by Lord Jacob Rothschild, who also manages the investment firm.

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Related Pages

• Frankfurt am Main, nicknamed "Bankfurt" or "Mainhattan," is still Germany’s banking center.
• Famous Germans, Austrians and Swiss
• Money and Banking in German-speaking Europe
• Famous Graves - The graves and cemeteries of the famous

The Rothschilds on the Web

• Rothschild family - Wikipedia - in English
• Rothschild - An excellent summary of the dynasty in German from Wikipedia

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