Josef Goldschmidt (banker)
Josef ben David Goldschmidt (died June 20, 1572 in Frankfurt am Main ) was an important German-Jewish businessman in the 16th century. He belongs to the ramified Goldschmidt family , which goes back to Moshe and Bela Goldschmidt, who had to move from Nuremberg to Frankfurt in 1498 after all Jews were expelled .
His father David and his mother Eva zum Roten Hut temporarily still worked in Heilbronn . Josef was first mentioned in 1545 in Tauberbischofsheim and at the end of 1547 he did small business with Frankfurt at the Reichstag in Augsburg . where he moved in 1548. He began as a broker for the Nuremberg trading house Imhoff at the Frankfurt trade fairs and brokered loans and the investment of funds for numerous princes. Also Jakob Fugger and the house Herbrot in Augsburg did business with him and had high debt. In 1550 he presented a letter of recommendation from the Duke of Alba and a letter of protection from Emperor Charles V. After the siege of Frankfurt in 1552, he took care of the repayment of debts to the city at the imperial court. Coin exchange shops, trade in textiles and jewels made him rich. From around 1562 he served as a kind of court factor for Philip I , the Landgrave of Hesse , as well as the princes Sayn-Wittgenstein , Kurköln, Kurtrier and numerous nobles. He was called the “humble Jew Joseph zum Goldenen Schwan” after his place of residence in Frankfurt's Judengasse . The Golden Chain House, which was renamed in 1580, was built in the middle of the 16th century under the name "Golden Swan".
The collapse of the southern German commercial buildings ( Paumgartner ) and the unreliability of his princely creditors ended his career. In 1564, Emperor Maximilian I ordered the city council to punish Josef by imprisonment because he had only delivered the imperial taxes transferred to him by the Counts of Nassau-Dillenburg to the council after a year. In 1567 he was arrested at the instigation of the Elector of the Palatinate and accused of forging promissory notes and embezzling funds, and was called the "Siegeldieb". Despite repeated interrogations under torture, he declared his innocence and called his Christian scribe a forger. In June 1568 his office and vault were searched and sealed. Since the Frankfurt Council also had demands on Josef, he remained in custody in isolation. On June 20, 1572 Josef died in the hospital.
While in custody, Josef stated the sum of his assets at 162,000 guilders and his liabilities at 102,000 guilders . With over 60,000 guilders, he would have been the richest Frankfurt citizen of his time.
literature
- Alexander Dietz : Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte II, Frankfurt am Main 1921, pp. 5–9 (reprint Glashütten iT 1971). ULB Darmstadt
- Roman Fischer: Josef to the Golden Swan and the Fugger . In: AFGK 68 (2002), pp. 101-124.
Web links
- Jewish Museum Frankfurt
- Roman Fischer: Josef to the Golden Swan | Frankfurt dictionary of persons. Retrieved April 2, 2020 .
Single receipts
- ^ Tree. Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
- ^ Cilli Kasper-Holtkotte: The Jewish community of Frankfurt / Main in the early modern period: Families, networks and conflicts in a Jewish center . Walter de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023158-8 ( google.de [accessed April 1, 2020]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Goldschmidt, Josef |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Goldschmidt, Josef ben David (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-Jewish banker in Frankfurt am Main |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century or 16th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 20, 1572 |
| Place of death | Frankfurt am Main |