Carl Mayer von Rothschild

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Carl Mayer von Rothschild

Kalman Mayer Rothschild (since 1817 Carl Mayer von Rothschild , from 1822: Carl Mayer Freiherr von Rothschild ) (born April 24, 1788 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 10, 1855 in Naples ) was a German banker from the Rothschild family .

life and work

He was the fourth son of the founder of the dynasty, Mayer Amschel Rothschild . Like his four brothers, he received a brief traditional Jewish education. He joined his father's company at the age of twelve.

For his father, Rothschild kept in contact with Elector Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel in his exile. In 1810 he became a partner in the banking and trading company “MA Rothschild & Sons”. His residence initially remained in Frankfurt. However, he was on numerous trips across Europe on behalf of the company. Like his brother Jakob Rothschild, he was involved in gold smuggling between England and France after 1810. He also played an important role since 1814 in providing the Wellington army with funds and in transferring English money payments to the allies.

In 1818 Rothschild married Adelheid Herz (1800-1853). With this he had four sons and a daughter.

  • Charlotte (1819–1884) marries Lionel de Rothschild (London)
  • Mayer Carl (1820-1886)
  • Adolphe Carl (1823-1900)
  • Wilhelm Carl (1828–1901)
  • Anselm Alexander Carl (1835–1854) - died at the age of 18

Also in 1818 he took part in the Aachen Congress as a representative of the Rothschilds . In the following years he stayed in contact with the courts and governments in Berlin , Saint Petersburg , Vienna and other capitals through his travels . Through his good political connections, Rothschild contributed to the further rise of the bank. In 1817 he was ennobled like his brothers , and in 1822 he was elevated to the status of Austrian baron .

Villa Pignatelli in Naples with a view of Vesuvius

In Naples in 1820 he founded the fifth Rothschild bank "CM de Rothschild e figli." However, the bank was not independent, but remained subordinate to the parent company. In 1821 he traveled to southern Italy with the Austrian troops. The troops were tasked with crushing the liberal movement. Rothschild, in collaboration with his brother Salomon, provided funding for the army.

Rothschild lived part of the year in Frankfurt and the other part in Naples. In 1818 he acquired a classicist villa in Neue Mainzer Straße 31/33, in 1837 the Günthersburg in Bornheim , whose garden he had Sebastian Rinz designed into an English landscape garden. From 1829 he was Consul General of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Frankfurt. His house, the Villa Pignatelli , acquired in Naples in 1841 , was one of the most prestigious houses in the city and attracted visitors from all over Europe.

Former Rothschild Castle - now Hemsbach town hall

In later years Rothschild ran the banking house from Frankfurt. Most of his four sons also lived in Frankfurt after their training. Two of them, Mayer Carl and Wilhelm Carl , took over the management of the Frankfurt headquarters after the death of their father and their childless uncle Amschel Mayer in 1855. After Carl Mayer's death, his son Adolphe (1823–1900) continued the branch in Naples until 1863. After it was closed as a result of the political unification of Italy, Adolphe moved to Paris. Carl Mayer's only daughter Charlotte (1818–1886) married her cousin Lionel Nathan Rothschild , a son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, in London in 1836 .

Carl Mayer von Rothschild died in Naples, but was buried in the Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil-Strasse . It lies in a sarcophagus created by Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz , together with his wife and their youngest son Anselm Alexander Carl (1835–1854).

Honors

Since the 17th century (1660) families of Jewish faith have been documented in Hemsbach. In 1845 they built their own synagogue with a ritual bath ( mikveh ). The Hemsbach Jewish cemetery has existed since 1674 and was used as an association cemetery until 1940. From 1836 to 1872 there was a Jewish elementary school in Hemsbach. In 1839 Carl Mayer von Rothschild bought the former castle estate on the Hemsbacher district and then became the first honorary citizen of the municipality of Hemsbach, which has only been the town of Hemsbach since 1979 . The castle estate included the Blesen villa, built in 1764 by the Palatinate hunting councilor von Blesen on the site of the former stable of the old Hemsbacher Tiefburg in the Italian country house style, the later middle wing of the second Hemsbacher castle. Around 1850, Carl Mayer von Rothschild had the villa extended with two wings and two more floors. The building, which is now called the New Hemsbach Castle, was given its Tuscan, Mediterranean appearance. A large park with selected plants completed the property.

In 1925 the municipality of Hemsbach bought the building from the last private owner. After the thorough renovation of the badly damaged building, the Rothschild Castle has been used as the Hemsbach town hall since 1928. After the last true to original renovation in 2009, the building now shines in new splendor.

His eldest son Mayer Carl (1820–1888) had the Rennhof Palace built in his honor in the Hemsbach district of Hüttenfeld in 1853, while his father was still alive. Since February 16, 1954, the Hüttenfeld High School has been operating here. One year after the death of the locksmith builder, the property was sold to the princes Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg in 1889 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. John F. Oppenheimer (Red.) And a .: Lexicon of Judaism. 2nd Edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh u. a. 1971, ISBN 3-570-05964-2 , Sp. 677.
  2. ^ Grave slab in the old Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt am Main for Carl Mayer von Rothschild