Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild

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Baron Wilhelm Carl ('Willi') von Rothschild

Wilhelm Carl Freiherr von Rothschild (born May 16, 1828 in Frankfurt am Main or May 10, 1828 in Naples , † January 25, 1901 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German banker and patron of the Rothschild family . With his death, the male line of the German branch of the family died out. The Frankfurt banking house MA von Rothschild & Sons founded by his grandfather Mayer Amschel Rothschild was liquidated.

life and work

Rothschild was the third of four sons of Carl Mayer von Rothschild , the fourth of the five sons of the family founder Mayer Amschel Rothschild , and his wife Adelheid nee. Hertz .

Wilhelm von Rothschild made the acquaintance of Rabbi Lazarus Bergmann after Rosh ha-Schanah in 1837 , who tried to win his uncle Amschel as a donor for the Kolel Holland weDeutschland (Ho "D).

According to family tradition, Rothschild was a pious and law-abiding Jew; he rejected the Jewish reform movement represented by the liberal rabbi Leopold Stein and supported the Orthodox in the Frankfurt Israelite community . While part of the Orthodox split off as the Israelite Religious Society in 1851 , he remained loyal to the community, but supported the appointment of the Orthodox rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and the construction of a synagogue for the religious society with generous donations.

View over the Kikkar Batthej Machasseh to Bejth Rothschild in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem , 2015

Together with his eldest brother Mayer Carl , after the death of his uncle Amschel Mayer in 1855 , he took over the management of the Frankfurt MA of Rothschild & Sons in Fahrgasse .

In 1857 he founded the Bejth Rothschild named after him ( Hebrew בֵּית רוֹטְשִׁילְד; Built in 1860) as part of the poor and pilgrims' homes administered by Kolel Ho "D on Mount Zion in Jerusalem (בָּתֵּי מַחֲסֶה וְהַכְנָסַת אוֹרְחִים עַל מָכוֹן הַר צִיּוֹן בִּירוּשְׁלִים). The art historian and architect David Kroyanker considers the Bejth Rotschild to be the most important building in Jerusalem in terms of architecture and history by Jewish clients of the 19th century.

After the death of his brother in 1886, Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild was the sole owner of the Frankfurt headquarters. Since he had no male descendants, his son-in-law Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild could not continue the bank in line with family tradition, but had to liquidate it. The business was taken over by the Berliner Disconto-Gesellschaft , a predecessor company of Deutsche Bank .

Paul Arnsberg praised Rothschild as the one of the Frankfurt Rothschilds who “deserves - also formally - an appreciation beyond the normal framework as outstanding (to get). He was a piece of Frankfurt history, an almost hermit-like mystic and a pillar of the old conservative observance of the strictest direction. "

family

Wilhelm von Rothschild married Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild in 1849 , the second oldest daughter of his cousin Anselm Salomon von Rothschild from the Austrian branch of the family. The couple had three daughters, of whom the eldest Georgine Sara (* 1851) died in Baden-Baden in 1869 . In her memory, the parents donated the Georgine Sara von Rothschild Foundation , a children's hospital.

The second daughter, Adelheid von Rothschild (1853-1935), married Edmond de Rothschild in 1877 , a cousin of her father from the Paris branch of the family. He was a pioneer of Jewish colonization in Palestine .

The youngest daughter, Minna Karoline (Minka) (1857–1903), married the Frankfurt banker Maximilian Benedikt von Goldschmidt (1843–1940), a member of the Frankfurt Goldschmidt family , in 1878 .

Properties in Frankfurt and the surrounding area

Commemorative plaque for the Rothschild Palais built in 1831 in today's Rothschild Park
Former Palais Grüneburg in Grüneburgpark
Memorial stele in Grüneburgpark
Villa Rothschild, Koenigstein
Grave of Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild (left)

Rothschild was the owner or builder of various properties in Frankfurt and the surrounding area, some of which still exist today. In 1869/70 he had an existing country house at Bockenheimer Landstrasse 10 converted into a representative palace and a park laid out. The palace and the Rothschildpark later belonged to his son-in-law Maximilian, who had to sell them to the National Socialist city ​​administration in 1937/38 for a fraction of the market value .

In 1877, Wilhelm Carl inherited the Grüneburgpark with the Villa Grüneburg from his cousin and father-in-law Anselm Salomon. Wilhelm Carl bequeathed this property to his daughter Minna Karoline (Minka) . In 1935, the National Socialist city ​​administration forced the then heir Albert von Goldschmidt-Rothschild to transfer ownership of the palace and park to the city. The Goldschmidt-Rothschild family was just able to emigrate abroad. Bombs destroyed the Villa Grüneburg in the Second World War. A memorial stele and a memorial plaque remind us of the building today without going into the fate of the previous owners.

Wilhelm Carl had a summer residence built in Königstein im Taunus from 1888 to 1894 , the Villa Rothschild . The special bond with Empress Friedrich , who at the same time had built her widow's residence, Schloss Friedrichshof , in nearby Kronberg-Schönberg , is shown by the fact that the Rothschilds had a path specially built as a more convenient access for their high-ranking girlfriend - today's 'Sonnenhofweg' . The Rothschild Villa was confiscated and the owner at the time was driven into exile. In 1945 the villa fell to the State of Hesse and was a meeting place for the Economic Council of the Bizone from 1947 to 1949 . During this time it was also called the House of the States and was considered the "cradle of the German constitution and the Federal Republic ". Today there is a luxury hotel in the Villa Rothschild and the Königsteiner Taunusgymnasium on the formerly extensive Rothschild grounds .

  • The Villa Rothschild in an illustrated book from 1900

  • Another view of the villa around 1900

  • Kurhaus Taunusblick around 1900 - the turrets of the Villa Rothschild can be seen in the background on the right

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Paul Arnsberg : The history of the Frankfurt Jews since the French Revolution , Volume 3 - Biographisches Lexikon, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 3-7929-0130-7 , p. 389
  2. ^ In the marriage book of the Free City of Frankfurt (1849–1851), p. 208 ( digitized version ) it says: geb. May 16, 1828 there
  3. ^ Dan Goldman, The Architecture of the Templers in their Colonies in 'Eretz-Israel', 1868-1948, and their Settlements in the United States, 1860-1925 , Cincinnati: Union Institute & University, 2003, p. 92.
  4. ↑ David Kroyanker (דָּוִד קְרוֹיָאנְקֶר), יְרוּשְׁלִים - מַבָּט אַרְכִיטֶקְטוֹנִי: מַדְרִיךְ טִיּוּלִים בִּשְׁכוּנוֹת וּבָתִּים , Jerusalem:כֶּתֶר, 1996, p. 30. ISBN 9650705708 .
  5. ^ Fate of the last owners of the Palais / Villa Grüneburg in Grüneburgpark in Frankfurt
  6. ↑ Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Jews in Königstein. Life, Meaning, Fates , 1983, ISBN 978-3-9800-7930-3
personal data
SURNAME Rothschild, Wilhelm Carl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rothschild, Wilhelm Carl Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker and patron
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1828 or May 16, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main or Naples
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1901
Place of death Frankfurt am Main