Rothschild

Celebrated family of financiers, the Fuggers of the nineteenth century, deriving its name from the sign of a red shield borne by the house No. 148 in the Judengasse of Frankfort-on-the-Main. This house is mentioned in the "Judenstädtigkeit" of 1619, at which date its number was 69. Curiously enough, it at first bore the sign of a green shield ("Zum Gruünen Schild"). It was restored in 1886, and, though not in its original location, it still remains in possession of the Rothschilds as a kind of family museum and memorial.

The Rothschild "Stammhaus," Frankfort-on-the-Main.(From a photograph.)

The earliest notice of a member of the family, given in the burial records of Frankfort, is that of Moses Rothschild (b. c. 1550), whose daughter Esther died in 1608. Members of the same family are mentioned at Worms in the seventeenth century as rabbis (Lewysohn, "Sechzig Epitaphien zu Worms"). One of these, Mendel Rothschild, was for several years preacher in Prague, then rabbi of Bamberg, and finally rabbi of Worms for fourteen years.

Mayer Amschel Roths-child.

The first Rothschild of any prominence was one Amschel Moses Rothschild, a small merchant and money-changer at Frankfort-on-the-Main; but the founder of the house was his son Mayer Amschel Rothschild, born in that city about 1743. When a boy Mayer used to be sent to exchange money for use in his father's banking business; and he thereby developed an interest in coins which was both practical and scientific. He was at one time destined for the rabbinate, and studied for that purpose in Fürth. He soon changed his career, however, and took a post in the Oppenheim banking-house in Hanover. About 1760 he started in business for himself in his native city, in the house of his father, who was then dead. He married, Aug. 29, 1770, Güttele Schnapper, who lived to see her sons at the head of European finance. Mayer was a general agent and banker, and traded also in works of art and curios. In the latter connection he became an agent of William IX., Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who on his father's death in 1785 had inherited the largest private fortune in Europe, derived mainly from the hire of troops to the British government for the putting down of the Revolution in the United States.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild had become acquainted with the crown prince in 1775, but does not seem to have done much business with him till toward the end of the next decade. He changed some English gold for him in 1789, and in 1794 took as much as £150,000 worth, but not alone, having associated with him no less than six other bullion-brokers of Frankfort. It was only toward the end of 1798 that he had sufficient credit with the prince to undertake single-handed any large quantity of gold brokerage. From 1800 to 1806 the landgrave placed with Rothschild 1,750,000 thaler, mostly at 4 per cent, part of it to be invested in Frankfort town loans, part in Danish loans. In 1801 he became the landgrave's court agent.

Nathan Mayer Roths-child.

Meanwhile his third son, Nathan Mayer Roths-child (born at Frankfort Sept. 16, 1777), had settled in England under somewhat remarkable circumstances, as related by himself to Sir Thomas Buxton. The firm dealt in Manchester goods, and, having been treated somewhat cavalierly by a commercial traveler, Nathan at a moment's notice settled in Manchester (1798) with a credit of £20,000, upon which he earned no less than £40,000 during the following seven years by buying raw material and dyes, having the goods made up to his own order, and selling them abroad, thus making a triple profit. He became naturalized as a British subject June 12, 1804, and in 1805 went to London, establishing himself at first in St. Helen's place and afterward in New Court, St. Swithin's lane, still the office of the firm. He married shortly afterward a sister-in-law of Moses Montefiore, thus coming into association with the heads of the Sephardic community, then ruling the financial world of London through their connection with Amsterdam. Owing to Napoleon's seizure of Holland in 1803, the leaders of the anti-Napoleonic league chose Frankfort as a financial center wherefrom to obtain the sinews of war. After the battle of Jena in 1806 the Land-grave of Hesse-Cassel fled to Denmark, where he had already deposited much of his wealth through the agency of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, leaving in the hands of the latter specie and works of art of the value of £600,000. According to legend, these were hidden away in wine-casks, and, escaping the search of Napoleon's soldiers when they entered Frankfort, were restored intact in the same casks in 1814, when the elector returned to his electorate (see Marbot, "Memoirs," 1891, i. 310-311). The facts are somewhat less romantic, and more businesslike. Roths-child, so far from being in danger, was on such good terms with Napoleon's nominee, Prince Dalberg, that he had been made in 1810 a member of the Electoral College of Darmstadt. The elector's money had been sent to Nathan in London, who in 1808 utilized it to purchase £800,000 worth of gold from the East India Company, knowing that it would be needed for Wellington's Peninsular campaign. He made no less than four profits on this: (1) on the sale of Wellington's paper, (2) on the sale of the gold to Wellington, (3) on its repurchase, and (4) on forwarding it to Portugal. This was the beginning of the great fortunes of the house, and its early transactions may be divided into three stages, in each of which Nathan was the guiding spirit: namely, (1) from 1808 to 1815, mainly the transmission of bullion from England to the Continent for the use of the British armies and for subventions to the allies; (2) from 1816 to 1818, "bearing" operations on the stock exchange on the loans needed for the reconstruction of Europe after Napoleon's downfall; and (3) from 1818 to 1848, the undertaking of loans and of refunding operations, which were henceforth to be the chief enterprises of the house.

Dispersion of the Brothers.

  * (1) As regards the first stage, the deaths in 1810 of both Sir Francis Baring and Abraham Goldsmid left Nathan Mayer Rothschild without a formidable competitor in the London bullion market; and it has been calculated that England forwarded to the Continent through him in the three years 1813 to 1815 no less than £15,000,000 sterling, while in the latter year up to the battle of Waterloo he forwarded in a similar manner £1,000,000 per month. He had a pigeon-post between England and the Continent which brought him early information of all important events. While the battle of Waterloo was in progress his agent Rowerth awaited the result at Ostend, and was the first to bring the news to London. This was on the morning of June 20, two days after the battle, when Roths-child immediately transmitted the intelligence to the government; this shows that the tradition that he gained largely by keeping the news secret is entirely mythical. In many instances Rothschild found it unnecessary to transmit English money to the Continent, as the foreign governments frequently preferred to have their loans reinvested for them in English consols. It was mainly in connection with this movement in bullion that the remarkable plan was adopted of having one of the Rothschild brothers in each of the chief capitals; but it is a mistake to believe that this arrangement was due to the foresight of Mayer Amschel. James, the youngest of the brothers, was not established in Paris till 1812, the year of Mayer Amschel's death, and then secretly for the purpose of collecting French coin to forward to Wellington for his advance through southern France; the firm of Rothschild Frères was not founded in Paris till 1817; Karl did not go to Naples till 1821; and Salomon went to Berlin in 1815 to arrange for payments through London to Berlin to the Englishman Herries. It was evidently Nathan who made these arrangements.V10p494001.jpgNathan Mayer Rothschild.
  * (2) The great sums needed by France and the allies after the Waterloo period were at first not supplied by the Rothschilds at all, though undoubtedly the large movements of bullion which wererequired for these loans were negotiated through them, as it is reckoned that from 1814 to 1822 no less than £18,000,000 sterling was transferred by them to the Continent, and it was for this reason that the brothers were raised to the Austrian nobility (Sept. 29, 1822; Nathan never assumed the title, though he acted as Austrian consul-general). But the loans themselves were made by the banking-house of Baring, which was connected with the firm of Hope in Amsterdam and with that of Ouvrard in Paris, for a long time the chief rival in Paris of the Roths-childs. The profits on these issues were enormous. The French loan of 1816 of 350,000,000 francs yielded 10 per cent; and the Austrian loan of 50,000,000 gulden in 1815 yielded 9 per cent.

Foreign Loans.

  * (3) As early as Feb. 5, 1817, the Rothschilds had taken up a Prussian loan of 1,500,000 gulden at 5 per cent; and by the end of the following year the brothers in their collective capacity were reported to be the richest firm in Europe; though they had not conducted any of the great loans of the preceding three years. Ehrenberg, therefore, thinks that they must have gained their fortune by speculating in the loans issued under the auspices of the Barings, probably by "bearing" operations which were so successful that they forced the governments concerned to allow the Rothschilds to participate in any future loans.

Year.| Country.| Amount.  
---|---|---  
1817| Prussia| 1,500,000| gulden.  
1818| | "| £5,000,000|   
1819| Great Britain| £12,000,000|   
1820| Austria (Lottery Loan)| 48,000,000| gulden.  
1820| | "| 20,800,000| "  
1821| | "| 37,500,000| "  
1821| Naples| 16,000,000| ducats.  
1821| Sicily| 4,500,000| "  
1822| Prussia| £3,500,000|   
1822| Russia| £3,500,000|   
1822| | "| £6,500,000|   
1822| Naples| 20,000,000| ducats.  
1823| Austria| £2,500,000|   
1823| ............................| 25,000,000| gulden.  
1823| France| 23,000,000| francs.  
1824| Brazil| £3,200,000|   
1824| Naples| £2,500,000|   
1825| Grand Duchy of Hesse| 6,500,000| gulden.  
1825| Brazil| £2,000,000|   
1829| | "| £800,000|   
1829| | "| 25,000,000| gulden.  
1829| Hesse-Homburg| 1,750,000| "  
1829| Hohenzollern-Hechingen| 260,000| "  
1830| Prussia| £4,500,000|   
1831| Belgium| 50,000,000| francs.  
1831| Papal States| 16,000,000| "  
1832| Belgium| £2,000,000|   
1834| Austria| 25,000,000| gulden.  
1834| Greece| 66,000,000| francs.  
1834| Grand Duchy of Hesse| 2,500,000| gulden.  
1835| Great Britain| £15,000,000|   
1837| Duchy of Nassau| 2,600,000| gulden.  
1839| Austria| 30,000,000| "  
1840| Duchy of Lucea| 1,050,000| "  
1840| Baden| 5,000,000| "  
1842| Austria| 40,000,000| "  
1843| Duchy of Lucea| 1,120,000| "  
1845| Papal States| 2,160,000| francs.  
1845| Baden| 14,000,000| gulden.  
1847| Irish Famine Loan| £10,000,000|   
1847| France| 250,000,000| francs.  
1847| Hanover| 3,600,000| thaler.  
1848| Baden| 2,500,000| gulden.  
1848| Bavaria| 22,000,000| "  
1848-51| Hesse (four loans)| 6,500,000| "  
  
The above is a list of the loans issued by the Rothschilds during the years 1817 to 1848, as far as these can be definitely ascertained: they make a total of $654,847,200 (£130,969,440).

The profits on these loans were at first very great. Salomon Rothschild in 1820 declared that the brothers in that year made 6,000,000 gulden, probably on the two Austrian loans, i.e., about 10 per cent. But others were by no means so remunerative. No less than £500,000 was lost in attempting to support Lord Bexley's refunding schemes; and the French refunding operation of 1823 from 5's to 3's, though originally suggested by Nathan, was equally unremunerative, causing a loss, it is said, of 3,000,000 francs. Nor were the Rothschilds always successful in obtaining the issue of loans. In 1834, despite their competition, a syndicate of the Foulds, Oppenheims, and others obtained the Sardinian loan; but the Rothschilds adopted their usual "bearing" policy, with the result that the next papal loan was financed by them. The Pereires were equally inimical to the Rothschilds, and successfully competed with them for Russian railway contracts.

Baron James.

While the early history of the firm was dominated by the influence of Nathan, after the year 1830 the youngest brother, James, came to the front, and the Paris house gained that predominance in French finance which it still retains, whereas throughout the nineteenth century there was concealed but very effective rivalry between the Barings and the Rothschilds in London. Baron James had befriended and assisted Louis Philippe before he came to the throne in 1830, and was the medium through which that astute monarch conducted his stock-exchange operations till his overthrow in 1848. In return Baron James obtained in 1846 the concession for the Great Northern Railway Company of France, having 300,000 shares, each of the value of 300 francs. His position in the social world of Paris is described by Balzac under the guise of "Baron Nucingen." In the year 1848 the Paris house was reckoned to be worth 600,000,000 francs as against 362,000,000 francs held by all the other Paris bankers. Meanwhile the Vienna branch obtained a similar concession for the Austrian Northern Railway (Nordbahn). Baron Salomon had also acquired from the Austrian government the Idra quicksilver-mine; and in 1832 the Almaden mines in Spain also came under the control of the Rothschilds, who thus obtained a monopoly of that metal. The Austrian firm later owned, in conjunction with the brothers Wilhelm and David von Gutmann, mines and iron-works at Witkowitz, Moravia. In the early stages of its existence the Austrian house did a large money-lending business with the mediatized and impoverished nobility of the Austrian empire, loans to the amount of no less than 24,521,000 gulden being on record.

There is little to be said about the Naples house, established in 1821 and discontinued in 1861 at the fall of the Bourbon dynasty.

Apart from railroads and mines the Rothschilds have rarely been interested in industrial developments, though the London house is still rated as "N. M. Rothschild and Sons, merchants." At one time they took up general insurance, and founded in 1824, with Sir Moses Montefiore, the Alliance InsuranceCompany as a sort of rival to Lloyd's. Only recently has the firm again turned its attention to mines, under the influence of Lord Rothschild, the interests of the London house in the Rio Tinto copper-mines and the De Beers diamond-mines being considerable. Similarly the firm has large interests in the oil-wells of Baku, Russia, thus becoming the chief competitor of the Standard Oil Company.

With the fall of Louis Philippe (1848) the hegemony of the various Rothschild firms again reverted to London. Baron Lionel, though his attention was diverted considerably from finance to politics by the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews, gained considerable prestige by his repeated election as representative of the city of London; and the London firm was instrumental during his leadership of it in financing no less than eighteen government loans, including the Irish Famine Loan, one of £15,000,000 to the English government in 1856, the £5,000,000 Turkish loan of 1858, several refunding operations for the United States, and national loans to the Russian government. He declined, however, to take up the Russian loan of 1861, owing to his disapproval of the action of the Russian government toward Poland.

After Mayer Amschel's death the Frankfort firm, which for many years, especially between 1850 and 1870, was of great importance, was until about 1855 under the guidance of Baron Amschel Mayer von Rothschild, and upon his death came under the joint management of the brothers Baron Mayer Karl and Baron Wilhelm (universally known in Germany as "Baron Willy"). The former was a man of high culture and great ability, a lover of art and literature, but somewhat of a misanthrope, owing, it is said, partly to the fact that seven daughters were born to him but no son. Baron Mayer Karl became a member of the Prussian Herrenhaus (House of Peers) in 1870, and thereafter paid little attention to business affairs, leaving these to his brother Baron Wilhelm. The latter was a very religious man, of rather narrow views, under whom the importance of the Frankfort firm rapidly declined. It was liquidated after his death in 1901.

The Rothschilds were not, however, without competitors in the issue of public loans. Other Jewish families—the Lazards, Sterns, Speyers, and Seligmans—adopted the Rothschild plan of establishing local branches in European capitals, each headed by a brother, and after 1848 the governments of Europe adopted the plan of throwing loans open to the public instead of resorting to one or two banking firms like the Rothschilds. In this way the Sterns secured the chief Portuguese loans, while a number of smaller Jewish firms began to combine their resources and form limited liability companies like the Crédit Mobilier, the Dresdener Bank, and the Deutsche Reichsbank of Berlin.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild.(From an old print.)

The relative importance of the Rothschilds diminished considerably in the second half of the nineteenth century. Having been ill advised as to their American policy, they invested largely in Confederate bonds and lost heavily. This appears to have disgusted them with American finance, which they left severely alone for many years, thus losing the opportunities afforded by the great financial expansion of the United States in the last decades of the nineteenth century. With the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71) the Rothschilds again came into financial prominence. They arranged with Bleichröder for the payment to Germany of the indemnity of five milliard francs; in 1875 the London house advanced the British government £4,080,000 for Suez Canal shares, upon which the Rothschilds were reported to have made£100,000; and in 1884 they loaned the Egyptian government £1,000,000.

The Union Générale.

Meanwhile the Nationalist and Reactionary parties in France desired to counterbalance the "Semitic" influence of the Rothschilds by establishing a banking concern which should be essentially Catholic. Accordingly in 1876 the Union Générale was founded with a capital of 4,000,000 francs, increased to 25,000, 000 fraces in 1878 under the direction of a certain Bontoux. After various vicissitudes, graphically described by Zola in his novel "L'Argent," the Union failed, and brought many of the Catholic nobility of France to ruin, leaving the Rothschilds still more absolutely the undisputed leaders of French finance, but leaving also a legacy of hatred which had much influence on the growth of the anti-Semitic movement in France. Something analogous occurred in England when the century-long competition of the Barings and the Rothschilds culminated in the failure of the former in 1893; but in this case the Rothschilds came to the rescue of their rivals and prevented a universal financial catastrophe. It is a somewhat curious sequel to the attempt to set up a Catholic competitor to the Roths-childs that at the present time the latter are the guardians of the papal treasure.

Of recent years the Rothschilds have consistently refused to have anything to do with loans to Russia, owing to the anti-Jewish legislation of that empire, though on one occasion the members of the Paris house joined in a loan to demonstrate their patriotism as Frenchmen.

As Philanthropists and Art Patrons.

The remarkable success of the Rothschilds, which has now lasted exactly a century, has been due in the first place to the financial genius of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, and secondly in large measure to the settlement of the five brothers in the European capitals, which enabled them to issue loans simultaneously. In the early and later stages the London house was the base of operations; but during the reign of Louis Philippe the Paris house appears to have directed undertakings. The business principles on which the Rothschilds acted were the unified policy of the five, later four, and finally three firms; their determination never to deal with unsuccessful persons; their use of the surest information and the most reliable instruments; and prompt action after obtaining such information. They did not aim at excessive profits, nor did they put "all their eggs in one basket"; they drew back in time if an enterprise was not promising, selling quickly, if necessary even at a loss, on the principle that the first loss is the best; and they were almost the first to make use of journalistic methods to arouse the interest of the public in their loans. They have, however, consistently kept the secret of their own operations. The original five brothers were shrewd business men, but all were equally uncultured (Karl Mayer writes of a "kondract" he had made). Their descendants, however, have been among the great patrons of art throughout western Europe, the collections of Barons Amschel, James, and Ferdinand being especially noteworthy. They have created quite a school of Jewish dealers in art, whose chief customers they have been (Duveen, C. Davis, Spitzer, and Wertheimer).

The services of the Rothschilds in the cause of philanthropy have been equally marked. Special hospitals have been founded by them for all creeds at Jerusalem, Vienna, Paris, and London; the Jews' Free School of the last-named city is supported almost entirely by Lord Rothschild at an estimated annual cost of £15,000. In London and Paris they have established workmen's dwellings on a large scale and on an economic and commercial basis; and their private charities are very large. The founder of the house, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, held the curious theory that if a beggar thanked him, the charitable transaction was concluded, whereas if he received no thanks, Heaven owed him some recompense for his charity. Consequently, it was his custom to thrust a coin into the hand of a beggar, and to hurry away before the latter could express his gratitude.

In addition, some of the members of the family have evinced an interest in Jewish literature. Baron James in Paris was the founder of the Société des Etudes Juives; Baron Wilhelm of Frankfort was a zealous collector of Hebrew incunabula, which are now in the Frankfort town library; and almost all great Jewish literary undertakings have been subventioned by one or other branch of the firm.

Hitherto the pedigree of the Rothschild family has been traced only as far as Amschel, the father of Mayer Amschel Rothschild; but, owing to the recent publication of the tombstone inscriptions of Frankfort-on-the-Main by Horovitz ("Inschriften von Frankfort"), it is now possible to trace it back with a high degree of probability four generations further, as far as Moses Rothschild, who was born about the middle of the sixteenth century. There is little doubt that all the Rothschilds form one family, as is shown by the similarity of first names; this would account for the somewhat unusual name of Kalman (brother of Mayer Amschel), and would give some hint as to the use of "Jacob" as the name of Mayer Amschel's youngest son, since the younger son of the uncle after whom he was named was also called Jacob. It is also seen that the rabbinic part of the family left Frankfort early in the seventeenth century, and is not related in a direct line with the more worldly portion.

The number of marriages between cousins in the later history of the family is remarkable, especially in the second and third generations after the five brothers had gone to five different capitals. Altogether of fifty-eight marriages contracted by the descendants of Mayer Amschel Rothschild to date (1905), no less than twenty-nine, or exactly one-half, have been between first cousins. It is noteworthy that these marriages as a rule have been fertile, which is what is anticipated by biological science; but several of the unions have resulted in daughters only, which is also anthropologically significant.

In the first names adopted there has been a restriction in choice in the early generations, causing a considerable amount of confusion between the many Charlottes, Louises, Karls, and Nathans. As a rule, the son has adopted the father's name as a second name, which has enabled a distinction to be made,and the same plan has with less suitability been followed in the case of the daughters. The family tree is found on pages 491-493.

Bibliography:

  * Das Haus Rothschild, Seine Geschichte und Geschäfte, Prague, 1857;
  * Reeves, The Rothschilds, London, 1887;
  * Scherb, Gesch. das Hauses Rothschild, Berlin, 1892;
  * A. Ehrenberg, in Deutsche Rundschau, 1903-4;
  * Dict. National Biography;
  * Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon, s. v.;
  * A. Kohut, Jüdische Berühmtheiten;
  * Horovitz, Inschriften von Frankfort;
  * Lewysohn, Sechzig Epiiaphien zu Worms.



J.

The following notices of members of the family are arranged in alphabetical order:

Albert (Anselm) Salomon von Rothschild, Freiherr:

Head of the Austrian branch of S. M. v. Rothschild und Söhne; born at Vienna Oct. 29, 1844; youngest son of Anselm von Rothschild. He was educated at the gymnasium of Vienna and the University of Bonn; entered the banking-house of Behrend at Hamburg; and then traveled extensively. He succeeded his father as head of the Vienna branch in 1874. In 1876 he married Karoline Bettina, daughter of Baron Alphonse Rothschild (b.at Paris Feb. 15, 1858; d. at Vienna March 24, 1892), in memory of whom he erected the Bettina Frauenspital. He takes especial interest in the orphan asylum and foundations for Jewish artists and musicians in Vienna.

S. F. T. H.Alphonse, Baron de Rothschild:

Second son of Baron James Mayer de Rothschild; born at Paris Feb. 1, 1827. The son of Austrian parents, he became naturalized in France in 1848. He received a careful education and was employed at an early age by his father in the management of the Chemin de Fer du Nord. In 1854 he became head of the French house, and in the same year was made one of the governors of the Bank of France. In 1869 he became president of the board of directors of the Chemin de Fer du Nord, also president of the Central Consistory of the Israelites of France, to which he had belonged as early as 1851 as delegate of the Jewish community of Bordeaux.

Baron Alpbonse de Rothschild.

When the Franco-Prussian war ended disastrously for the French republic, Baron Alphonse became the head of the syndicate of French bankers which guaranteed the payment of the indemnity of five milliard francs by France to Germany. It was especially through his ability that France was enabled to pay the indemnity within a very short time.

He further directed the important work of establishing a fund, chiefly in German bonds, to avoid the expense of converting bills into German currency when remitting them to the German government, thus saving a great amount to the French government.

As to Baron Alphonse's connection with the Suez Canal transactions, opinions differ. He and Charles de Lesseps were commissioned to effect a harmonization of the French and the English interests. It is a fact that the management of the canal changed hands in 1883, and that England is now actually in possession.

At present the baron is especially interested in important electric and petroleum undertakings. He has presented over 600 pictures to the Museum of Paris; and in 1895 he succeeded Emile Perrin as honorary member of the Paris Academy of Fine Arts. The Château of Ferrières-en-Brie (department of Scine-et-Marne) is his property. The German staff was installed there at the commencement of the siege of Paris. There also Jules Favre, on behalf of the French government, conducted the unsuccessful peace negotiations with Prince Bismarck.

The charitable and benevolent institutions of all creeds have been enriched by gifts from the firm of Rothschild Brothers. Each year as winter approaches, Barons Alphonse, Gustave, and Edmond donate 100,000 francs for distribution among the poor of the twenty arrondissements of Paris. They are the founders of sixty annual stipends for the benefit of young persons wishing to enter the higher commercial schools. On June 27, 1904, the three Barons Rothschild notified Troullot, minister of commerce, of their intention to donate the sum of 10,000,000 francs, to be employed in the erection of inexpensive dwelling-houses, and for the general furtherance of plans for ameliorating the condition of the working classes.

In 1857 Alphonse married Leonora, daughter of Baron Lionel de Rothschild of London. His only son, Edouard (b. Feb. 24, 1868), fought a duel during the excitement caused by the revision of the Dreyfus case.

Bibliography:

  * Curinier, Dict. Nat. ii. 356;
  * La Grande Encyclopædie.



S. F. T. H. J. Ka.Amschel Mayer von Rothschild, Freiherr:

Eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and, after the death of his father, senior member of the family and head of the Frankfort branch; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main June 12, 1773; died there Dec. 6, 1855. The Emperor of Austria knighted him in 1815 and made him a "Freiherr" in 1822. In 1820 he was appointed Bavarian consul in Frankfort with the title of court banker.

Amschel Mayer was very Orthodox and actively supported the Conservative party in Judaism. He took great interest in the history of his race, and when in 1840 many cloisters were sequestered in Spain, he directed his agent to secure all documents of interest to the Jews. He was besides a collector of paintings, coins, and metal-work.

Amschel Mayer left no children, but was succeeded in business by two sons of his brother Karl, the founder of the Naples branch.

Bibliography:

  * (Anonymous) Das Haus Rothschild, i. 173-205, Prague and Leipsic, 1857.



Anselm von Rothschild, Freiherr:

Austrian banker; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main Jan. 29, 1803; died at Ober-Döbling, near Vienna, July 27, 1874; only son of Salomon Mayer von Rothschild. Whilehis father and uncles had received their education and training in the paternal home, he was sent, in 1820, to the University of Berlin. Two years later he entered the Paris house of the Rothschilds, spending some time there as well as at Berlin, Copen-hagen, Brussels, and The Hague. From 1848 he assisted his uncle Amschel Mayer in Frankfort, and after the death of his father, removed to Vienna (1855), where he continued to conduct the Austrian house of the Rothschilds till his death.

In 1861 Anselm was appointed a life member of the Austrian House of Lords. In 1869 he founded a Jewish hospital in Vienna. He was an enthusiastic collector of paintings and other objects of art.

In 1826 Anselm married his niece Charlotte Nathan Rothschild, daughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild of London. He left three sons, Nathan, Ferdinand, and Albert Salomon. Nathan (b. Oct. 26, 1836) is a sportsman, traveling much, especially on the Mediterranean; he has not taken any active interest in the Rothschild business. He has published "Skizzen aus dem Süden." Anselm had also three daughters: Julie, married Adolf Karl von Rothschild; Mathilde, married Wilhelm Karl von Rothschild (both of the Naples branch); and Luise, who became the wife of Baron Franchetti.

Bibliography:

  * Von Scherb, Gesch. des Hauses Rothschild, Berlin, 1892.



S. F. T. H.Anthony de Rothschild, Sir:

Born at New Court, London, 1810; died at Woolston, near Southampton, Jan. 3, 1876; second son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild. Entering his father's banking business, he became a prominent member of the firm. He lived the life of a country gentleman, which did not, however, prevent him becoming the main representative of the family in the London Jewish community. As president of the Jews' Free School he was unwearied in his efforts to promote the good management of that institution. He assisted at the establishment of the United Synagogue, and became its president. For a short time he was president also of the Jews' Hospital. In 1846 he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom, with special remainder, failing his own male issue, to the sons of his elder brother, Baron Lionel de Rothschild. He was also a baron of the Austrian empire, and was made Austrian consul-general in London in 1858.

Sir Anthony was prominently connected with numerous mercantile bodies, notably the Alliance Life and Fire Assurance Company, of which he was a director. In 1840 Sir Anthony married Louisa, daughter of Abraham Montefiore; he had two daughters, who survived him.

Bibliography:

  * Jew. Chron. and Jew. World, Jan. 7, 1876;
  * The Times (London), Jan. 5, 10, and 11, 1876;
  * Morais, Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century, s.v., philadelphia, 1880.



J. G. L.Arthur de Rothschild, Baron:

Born at Paris March 28, 1851; died at Monte Carlo 1903; son of Nathaniel Rothschild of London. He was the author of: "Notice sur l'Origine du Prix Uniforme de la Taxe de Lettres et sur la Création des Timbres de Poste en Angleterre," Paris, 1871; and "Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres," ib. 1873\. Baron Arthur was interested in yachting, and for several years was vice-president of the Union des Yachts Français.

Bibliography:

  * La Grande Encyclopédie.



S. J. Ka.Charlotte de Rothschild, Baroness:

Born at Naples 1819; died at Gunnesbury Park, Acton, near London, March 13, 1884; daughter of Baron Karl von Rothschild. In 1836 she married her cousin Baron Lionel de Rothschild. She took the deepest interest in politics and was of the greatest service to her husband in his parliamentary career.

In 1859 the baroness established an Invalids' Kitchen at Bishopsgate, London, and in Nov., 1859, founded the Home for Aged Incurables, both of which institutions as well as several other charities were entirely supported by her. In 1867 she became president of the Ladies' Benevolent Loan and Visiting Society. She founded also the Emigration Society. Her labors in connection with the Jews' Free School were far-reaching; she even composed as readings for the school "Addresses to Young Children." In memory of her daughter, she established "Evelina Prizes" at all the Jewish elementary schools and at Jews' College.

Bibliography:

  * Jew. Chron. and Jew. World, March 14, 1884.



J. G. L.Constance de Rothschild (Lady Battersea):

Authoress and communal worker; eldest daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild; born in London 1847. In 1877 she married Cyril Flower, who was created first Baron Battersea in 1892. In conjunction with her sister Annie (the Honorable Mrs. Eliot Yorke) she published, in 1870, "The History and Literature of the Israelites According to the Old Testament and the Apoerypha," an adaptation, for the young, of the Biblical narrative. The work was republished in 1872, in an abridged form, for the use of schools. Lady Battersea has since contributed occasionally to magazines, dealing descriptively with the ceremonial and ritual she witnessed in her father's house. She has taken a great interest in the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women, of which she is vice-president and secretary; and she has been intimately associated with other departments of Jewish social work in London.

Bibliography:

  * Jewish Year Book, 5665 (1904-5).



J. J. de H.Edmond de Rothschild, Baron:

Born at Paris Aug. 19, 1845. He is associated with his brothers Alphonse and Gustave in the French house of the Rothschilds. He is known in the Jewish world as the founder of the Agricultural Colonies in Palestine, at present under the administration of the Jewish Colonization Association. In 1877 he married Adelaide, daughter of Wilhelm Karl Rothschild of Frankfort-on-the-Main, by whom he has three children: James Edmond Armand (b. Dec. 18, 1878; M.A., Cambridge), Maurice (b. May 19, 1881), and Myriam.

Baron Edmond is a great lover of the arts and a collector of paintings. His wife is president of the patronage committee of the Comité de Bienfaisance, and foundress and vice-president of the HomeIsraélite Français, which assists young Jewish girls to find situations in the trades, the industrial arts, as teachers, etc.

S. J. Ka.Ferdinand de Rothschild, Baron:

English politician and art connoisseur; born in Paris 1839; died at Wallesdon Manor, England, Dec. 17, 1898; second son of Freiherr Anselm von Rothschild. He was educated in Vienna, and settled in England in 1860. In 1865 he married his cousin Evelina de Rothschild, sister of Lord Rothschild. She died in the following year, and in her memory he built and largely supported the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children.

Baron Ferdinand was fond of country life and had the ordinary tastes of a country gentleman. He hunted, and bred fat stock; he made Wallesdon a model village; and he was fond of yachting. In 1883 he held the office of high sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and was also justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant for the county. In 1885, when Lord Rothschild was created a peer, Baron Ferdinand succeeded as a Liberal to his seat for Aylesbury; but in the following November the borough was disfranchised, and he was returned for the newly created division of Aylesbury, which constituency he continued to represent as a Liberal Unionist until his death. At Wallesdon the baron had the honor of entertaining the Queen of England on May 14, 1890; and the emperor Frederick of Germany and the Shah of Persia were likewise reckoned among his guests. The baron was a freemason, and in 1892 was one of the founders of the Ferdinand de Roths-child Lodge, of which he was installed master.

As a collector of works of art, Baron Ferdinand held one of the first places in his generation. The Manor itself was one of the most celebrated homes in England, its staircases, copied from those of the Château Chenonceaux, being specially noteworthy.

Baron Ferdinand rendered valuable services in various capacities to the Jewish community. From 1868 to 1875 he was treasurer of the Board of Guardians; in 1868 he laid the foundation-stone of the North London Synagogue; in 1870 he became warden of the Central Synagogue; and at the Stepney Jewish Schools he founded a "Baron Ferdinand de Roths-child Technical Scholarship." He was a man of wide culture and strong literary sympathies. The result of some of his studies he gave to the public in the form of lectures to working men, in articles in the "Nineteenth Century," and in a work (London, 1896) entitled "Personel Characters from French History." At his death he bequeathed to the British Museum some of the rare art treasures of Wallesdon Manor, a gift amounting in value to about £100,000.

Bibliography:

  * Jew. Chron. and Jew. World, Dec. 23, 1898;
  * The Times (London), Dec. 19, 1898.



J. G. L.Gustave de Rothschild, Baron:

Born Feb. 17, 1829; consul-general for Austria-Hungary, director of the Chemin de Fer du Nord and the Paris-Lyons and Mediterranean Railway; member of the board of directors of the Rothschild Hospital and Hospice; president of the Jewish Consistory of Paris (of which he has been a member since 1856), and also of the committee of consistorial schools; chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

In 1866 he founded a Hebrew primary school known as "The Gustave de Rothschild School." On the anniversary of the death of his daughter, Baroness Emanuel Leonina, in 1898, he established twenty annuities of 600 franes each, to be distributed among aged Jews of either sex.

In 1859 Baron Gustave married Cecilie Anspach. Issue, five children: Robert (b. Jan. 19, 1880), civil and mining engineer; Lucie, wife of Baron Lambert, president of the Central Hebrew Consistory of Belgium, and representative of the firm of Rothschild Brothers at Brussels; Aline, wife of Sir Edward Sassoon, M.P., of London; and Juliette, wife of Baron Emanuel Leonina, civil engineer.

The Baroness Gustave de Rothchild is president of the ladies' committee of inspection of the Hebrew schools of Paris. In 1877 she established a clothing club, for the distribution of garments, medicines, etc., among the Jewish children attending the consistorial and parochial schools.

Bibliography:

  * Léon Kahn, Histoire des Ecoles Communales et Consistoriales de Paris, 1884.



S. J. Ka.Hannah Rothschild. See Rosebery, Hannah, Countess of.Henri de Rothschild, Baron:

French physician; born at Paris July 26, 1872; son of James Edward Rothschild of London. After a careful education he traveled extensively and then, returning to Paris, studied medicine, graduating as M.D. in 1898. Establishing himself as a physician in his native city, he founded a dispensary for the treatment of diseases of children.

Rotschild is the author of several books on his travels ("Notes Scandinaves," "Notes Africaines," "Souvenirs d'Espagne," etc.), and of the following medical works: "Quelques Observations sur l'Alimentation du Nouveau-Né et de l'Emploi Raisonné du Lait Stérilisé," Paris, 1897; "Notes sur l'Hygiène et la Protection de l'Enfance dans les Principales Capitales de l'Europe," ib. 1897; "L'Allaitement Mixte et l'Allaitement Artificiel," ib. 1898\. He has also collaborated on several professional journals, besides editing unpublished letters of Jean Jacques Rousseau, with a preface and notes: "Lettres Inédites de Jean-Jacques Rousseau."

Bibliography:

  * Curinier, Dict. Nat. i 178.



S. F. T. H.James Edouard de Rothschild, Baron:

Born at Paris Oct. 28, 1844; died there Oct. 25, 1881. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Société des Etudes Juives and the founder of the Société des Anciens Textes Français. He is the author of "Introduction au Mystère du Vieil Testament."

Baron James' widow is directress of the Hospital of Berck-sur-Mer; and his daughter Jane, wife of Baron Leonino, is the foundress of the Orphanage of Boulogne-sur-Seine.

Bibliography:

  * Zadoc Kahn, Souvenirs et Regrets, 1898.



James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron:

Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main May 15, 1792; died at Paris Nov. 15, 1868. He founded in 1812 the Paris banking-house known under the firm name of Roths-childFrères. In 1822 he was appointed consul-general to Austria-Hungary. He negotiated the French loans of 1830 and 1834, and in return for his services was created by Louis Philippe grand officer of the Legion of Honor, of which he had been a chevalier since 1823. He took a very important part in the building of the Saint-Germain Railroad, one of the most important roads in the north of France.

The baron was ever active in the interests of his Coreligionists. By his fearless intervention he frequently averted cruel persecutions of the Jews, and caused the repeal of unjust and burdensome laws directed againt them. On April 7, 1852, he made over to the Central Consistory of Paris a hospital in the Rue Piepus, Paris, built on a site having an area of about 16,000 square meters, on condition that the establishment should be reserved in perpetuity as a refuge for sick and aged Jews. He was besides a noted patron of Hebrew letters.

Baron James Mayer de Roths-child.

The baron's wife, Betty (d. in Paris Sept., 1886), was foundress of the Hospital for Incurables, which she endowed with an annual revenue of 800 francs for each of its seventy beds. The Salomon and Caroline de Rothschild Orphanage, in Paris (opened June 3, 1874), wholly devoted to the care of Jewish orphans of either sex, is another testimony to her charity. She, moreover, left 600,000 francs to the public charities, for the assistance of poor laborers in paying their rents.

Bibliography:

  * Zadoc Kahn, Sermons et Allocutions, 3d series, 1894;
  * idem, Souvenirs et Regrets, 1898.



S. J. Ka.Karl Mayer von Rothschild, Freiherr:

Born at Frankfort-on-the-Main April 24, 1788; died at Naples March 10, 1855; fourth son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and head of the Italian branch. From 1821 he lived in Naples and Frankfort and became banker to the kingdoms of Sicily, Sardinia, and Naples, of the Papal States, and of the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. He was made a "Freiherr" by the crown of Austria in 1822 and consul-general of Sicily at Frankfort in 1829. His wife, Adelheid Herz, was a society leader and a well-known philanthropist.

Karl Mayer left four sons—Mayer Karl, Adolf Karl, Wilhelm Karl, and Alexander—and one daughter, all of whom married members of the Rothschild family. Adolf Karl (b. at Frankfort May 21, 1823) succeeded his father.

Bibliography:

  * Das Haus Rothschild, ii. 19 et seq., Prague and Leipsic, 1857;
  * Reeves, The Rothschilds, pp. 252 et seq., London, 1887.



S. F. T. H.Leopold de Rothschild:

Anglo-Jewish communal worker and sportsman; born Nov. 22, 1845; third son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild, and brother of Lord Rothschild. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, and is a deputy lieutenant, a justice of the peace, and commander of the Royal Victorian Order (1905).

Rothschild is an active worker in the Anglo-Jewish community, being vice-president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, a member of the council of the United Synagogue and of the Jewish Board of Deputies, chairman of the Jewish Emigration Society, one of the treasurers of the London Jewish Board of Guardians, and a member of the board of management of the Central Synagogue, London.

Rothschild is a sportsman, and an intimate friend of the King of England. His horse St. Amant in 1904 won the English Derby.

Bibliography:

  * Jewish Year Book, London, 1904;
  * Who's Who, London, 1904.



J. I. L. B.Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, Baron: Financial Career.

Born at London Nov. 22, 1806; died there June 3, 1879; eldest son of Baron Nathan Mayer de Rothschild. After passing some time as a student at Göttingen he was initiated into the business transactions of the firm under his father's direction. In 1836 he succeeded the latter in the direction of the English house of Rothschild, the management of most of the operations and negotiations of the firm being entrusted to him. He had three brothers, but they deferred implicitly to him. His was the guiding mind; and while he lived the center of the finance of the world may be said to have been his office in New Court. In 1847 he negotiated the Irish Famine Loan; in 1854 he raised £16,000,000 for the English government to meet the expenses of the Crimean war; and for twenty years he acted as the agent of the Russian government. He had a large share in the successful funding of the United States national debt; provided the funds for the immediate purchase of the Suez Canal shares; and managed the business of the group of bankers who guaranteed to the German empire the permanence of the exchanges, thus facilitating the payment of the French indemnity at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. He was a director of the Alliance Insurance Company, and of the Lombardo Venetian Railway, in which he held a large interest; and the Chemin de Fer du Nord of France owed its construction chiefly to his foresight and activity. He actively cooperated with the Vienna branch of his firm in directing the finances of the Austrian empire; and the Egyptian loan of £8,500,000 was contracted by his house.

Baron Lionel Nathan de Roths-child.As a Communal Worker.

Baron Lionel was the leader of the Jewish community in England for upward of thirty years. He was a member of the Board of Deputies, of which he had been elected president in April, 1855, but declined to serve; he was for a long period president of the Great Synagogue; he laid the foundation-stone of the Central Synagogue (1869), and was for some time on the council of the United Synagogue. In 1843 he cooperated with Sir Moses Montefiore in the latter's efforts to ameliorate the condition of the Russian and Polish Jews; and an appeal from him on behalf of the Rumanian Jews was read at the Berlin Congress of 1878.

Baron Lionel's political career was chiefly memorable for the conspicuous part he took in the struggle for Jewish emancipation. At the general election in July, 1847, he was elected member of Parliament in the Liberal interest for the city of London, with Lord John Russel and two other members. Parliament that year met early, and Lord John Russell, then prime minister, brought in a bill, which was passed by a large majority in the House of Commons, affirming the eligibility of Jews to all functions and offices to which Roman Catholics were admitted by law. The bill was repeatedly rejected in the House of Lords. Gladstone and Disraeli were among those who voted with the Whigs, the latter appealing to the House to discard the super-stitions of the Dark Ages, and to perform a great act of national justice.

Becomes First Jewish Member of Parliament.

In the meantime Baron Lionel was elected to Parliament again and again. In 1849 he had been a member for two sessions without having taken the oath, when he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds and a new writ was issued for the city of London. He was again returned, and continued to be a member without taking the oath "on the true faith of a Christian"; but being again returned in succeeding parliaments, he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds a second time, in 1857. On July 23 a writ was again issued for the city of London, and he was returned for the fifth time. At length, in 1858, the Jews' Disabilities Bill passed, and its principle was extended by a further act, passed two years later. Baron Lionel was the first Jew who took the amended form of oath (July 26, 1858). In commemoration of the event several scholarships were founded at schools and colleges by subscription and otherwise. Baron Lionel continued to sit for the city of London, with the exception of a short interval, till 1874, when he shared in the general Liberal defeat.

Baron Lionel was the friend and counselor of the prince consort, and held intimate relations with Disraeli, the prime minister, whose Sidonia in "Coningsby" is an idealized portrait of him.

In his philanthropic endeavors the baron was greatly assisted by Baroness de Rothschild, who was his almoner, especially in the organization of the Jews' Free School, which was raised by their joint efforts from squalor to a condition of comparative refinement. It was said of the baron that more than a tithe of his great income was applied in charitable works.

Baron Lionel married in 1836 Charlotte, daughter of Baron Karl von Rothschild of Naples, who survived him. He was succeeded by Nathan Meyer Rothschild, M.P., his eldest son, and left two other sons, Alfred de Rothschild and Leopold de Rothschild, and a daughter, Leonora (m. 1857 Baron Alphonse de Rothschild of Paris). The death in 1866 of his daughter Evelina (m. Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild) was it blow from which Baron Lionel never entirely recovered.

Bibliography:

  * Reeves, The Rothschilds, London, 1887;
  * Jew. Chron. June 6, 1879;
  * Jew. World, June 6, 1879;
  * The Times (London), June 4, 5, 12, and 20, 1879;
  * The Montefiore Diaries, 1890;
  * Morais, Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century, s.v.:
  * Dict. National Biography.



Lionel Walter Rothschild:

Naturalist, communal worker, and politician; born in London Feb. 8, 1868; eldest son of Lord Rothschild. He was educated at Bonn and later at Magdalen College, Cambridge. In 1899 he was returned to Parliament, for the Aylesbury division of Buckinghamshire, the seat previously held by his uncle, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. For this constituency he was again returned in the Conservative interest in Oct., 1900. He is greatly interested in natural history, and has built in Tring Park a museum containing many rare specimens, to replenish which he has sent expeditions to the remotest corners of the earth.

Rothschild is member of the council of the United Synagogue, of the Board of Deputies, of the Jewish Board of Guardians, and of the committee of the Jews' Free School, and treasurer of the Jewish Industrial School. He has publislied "Avifauna of Laysan," and is editor of "Novitates Zoologieæ" issued at the Zoological Museum, Tring.

Bibliography:

  * Jew. Chron. Sept. 28, 1900.



G. L.Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

See p. 490.

Mayer Karl von Rothschild, Freiherr:

German banker; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main Aug. 5, 1820; died there Oct. 16, 1886; eldest son of Karl Mayer von Rothschild of Naples. He lived with his parents until 1837. During the following two years he studied at the University of Göttingen, and in 1839 at that of Berlin. In 1840 he returned to Naples, and joined in 1842 the Frankfort house, of which he became the head in 1855, when his cousin Anselm succeeded his father in Vienna. Until Mayer Karl's death he presided over the Frankfort establishment. In 1867 he was elected a member of the North German Reichstag, which position be held until 1870, when he was appointed a life member of the Prussian House of Lords. He was philanthropic and a collector of works of art.

In 1842 Mayer Karl married Louise, daughter of Nathan Mayer von Rothschild of London, and left as issue five daughters.

Bibliography:

  * Von Scherb, Gesch. des Hauses Rothschild, Berlin, 1892.



S. F. T. H.Mayer Nathan de Rothschild, Baron:

English financier and sportsman; born in London June 29, 1818; died there Feb. 6, 1874; fourth son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a member of the firm of N. M. Rothschild & Sons, in which house he at one time took an active interest. He held a seatin Parliament, being elected member for Hythe on several successive occasions, and was a steady adherent of the Liberal party.

In 1857 Rothschild acquired land in Buckinghamshire and commenced building his mansion of Mentmore which was soon celebrated alike for its hospitality and works of art. In the neighboring hamlet of Crafton he set up his stud-farm, where he bred many famous horses. He was a popular member of the Jockey Club. He thrice won the One Thousand Guineas stakes and twice the Goodwood Cup. In 1871 he won the Derby, the One Thousand Guineas, the Oaks, the St. Leger, and the Cesarewitch; and that year was called "the Baron's year."

Rothschild married in 1850 his first cousin Juliana, eldest daughter of Isaac Cohen, and left as issue one daughter, who married Lord Rosebery.

Bibliography:

  * Jew. Chron. and Jew. World, Feb. 13, 1874;
  * The Times (London), Feb. 7, 11, and 12, 1874.



J. G. L.Nathan Mayer Rothschild.

See p. 490.

Nathan (Nathaniel) Meyer Rothschild, Lord:

Son of Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild; the present (1905) head of the English house of Rothschild; born in London Nov. 8, 1840. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where as a student he was one of the associates of the present King of England, with whom he has since remained on terms of intimacy. Politically a Liberal (now a Liberal Unionist), he sat in parliament from 1865 to 1885 as the member for Aylesbury. He had inherited his English baronetcy from his uncle in 1876 and the Austrian barony from his father in 1879; in 1885 he was raised to the peerage, and, as Baron Rothschild, was the first Jew to take his seat in the House of Lords, an event which was regarded as completing the emancipation of the English Jews. Lord Rothschild has been continuously reappointed lord-lieutenant of the county of Buckingham. In 1902 he was made a privy councilor, and in the same year the knight grand cross of the Royal Victorian Order was conferred upon him.

Nathan, Lord Rothschild.

In 1889 he became a member of a parliamentary commission appointed to report on the congestion in the population of London. He urged the London Jewish community to unite on what was known as the "East End Scheme," a plan for improving the spiritual and social life of Jewish East London. Though Lord Rothschild offered £20,000 toward the expenses, the plan was vigorously opposed by Sir Samuel Montagu and others, and nothing came of it except the annual free services for the Jewish masses held on New-Year's Day and the Day of Atonement, which Lord Rothschild regularly attends.

Lord Rothschild is a governor of the Bank of England and a presiding officer of many great corporations. In 1902 he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, an office that brought him in touch with the late Theodor Herzl, whose East-African project he indorsed. He offered positive and outspoken resistance to the bills proposed in Parliament for the restriction of alien immigration. He has always been a liberal contributor to funds for the relief of the persecuted in Russia and elsewhere; he is a supporter and an officer of most of the communal charities, and a dispenser of private charity on a large scale, and is especially interested in the Jews' Free Scliool, of which he is president and which owes its position to his benefactions. He holds the communal offices of president of the United Synagogue and warden of the Great Synagogue (the most typically Orthodox English synagogue in London), and is regarded as the lay head of the Jewish community of England. As a social worker his most notable success has been as a founder of the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Co.

Bibliography:

  * Jewish Year Book, 1904-5 (5665).



J. J. de H.Salomon Mayer von Rothschild, Freiherr:

Austrian banker; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main Sept. 9, 1774; died at Paris July 28, 1855; second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, head of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild house. Salomon spent most of his time in his native city until 1816, when he removed to Vienna, becoming interested in all the great financial undertakings of the Austrian empire. He became the financial originator of the Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn, which was inaugurated in 1836. Among the other enterprises in which he was interested may be mentioned: the Austrian state loans of 1823, 1829, and 1842; the coal-mines of Witkowitz; and the asphalt lake of Dalmatia.

Salomon Mayer received the honorary freedom of the cities of Vienna and Brünn; he was knighted in 1815 by the crown of Austria; and in 1822 he was created a "Freiherr" He acquired for his family extensive landed properties, among them Oderberg, Hultschin, and Schillersdorf.

Salomon Mayer died while on a visit to Paris; he left two children: Betty, who married her uncle Baron James de Rothschild of Paris, and a son, Anselm, who succeeded him in business.

Bibliography:

  * Letteris, Lebensbild des Verewigten Freiherrn Saloman v. Rothschild (in Hebrew, with German title), Vienna, 1855;
  * Reeves, The Rothschilds, pp. 272 et seq., London, 1887;
  * Von Scherb, Gesch. des Hauses Rothschild, Berlin, 1892.



Wilhelm Karl von Rothschild, Freiherr:

German banker; born at Frankfort-on-the-Main May 16, 1828; died there Jan. 25, 1901; son of Karl Mayer von Rothschild of Naples. With his brother Mayer Karl he became joint head of the Frankfort house in 1855, and he was sole head from the time of his brother's decease (1886). He married Mathilde, daughter of Anselm Rothschild of Vienna, and left two daughters.

As neither Wilhelm Karl nor his brother Mayerleft a male heir, the Frankfort branch of the house of Rothschild was discontinued (July 1, 1901).

Bibliography:

  * Von Scherb, Gesch. des Hauses Rothschild, Berlin, 1892.



S. F. T. H.