Wolf Wertheimer

Simon Wolf Wertheimer (* around 1681 in Vienna ; † January 12, 1765 in Munich ) was a Jewish court factor at the Bavarian court , first of the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel in Munich.

Life

His father was the important Viennese court factor Samson Wertheimer , his wife came from the Oppenheimer family . Two large banking houses were connected with it. They had several sons, Isaak (born in Fürth , married to Simelie Gomperz from the Klever factor family ), Abraham Simon and Samuel Wolf, who continued the business.

In 1709 he took over his father's financial affairs in Vienna, initially as an assistant. The Bavarian court needed money for the costly marriage of Prince Elector Karl Albrecht in 1722, which he borrowed from Jewish court factors. In addition, the army constantly demanded new money. Wolf Wertheimer, appointed court jeweler in 1723, settled in Munich, attracted few other Jews and thus created a small community. In 1725 there was therefore an anti-Jewish riot among the students of the Jesuit high school . When the Elector Karl Albrecht came to power in 1726, the debt burden proved to be an insoluble problem and repayment came to a complete halt. Wolf Wertheimer was reassuringly appointed the imperial upper court factor, but had to concentrate completely on debt collection without being able to continue his father's company. In 1733 he at least achieved exemption from the Leibzoll , and in 1750 extended residence rights throughout Bavaria. He was committed to helping the Bohemian Jews expelled by Maria Theresa in 1744/45 . He partly moved his residence to Augsburg or changed back and forth. His Munich apartment became the meeting place for the church service.

But despite the imperial support, so as not to damage the credit business as a whole, the elector continued to be insolvent, referring to the devastation and loss of income in the ongoing wars. When he himself became emperor in 1742, he had Wolf Wertheimer accused of treason because he had made a pact with the enemy Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession . That only brought a delay; the Elector Maximilian III, who succeeded him in 1745 . After lengthy negotiations, Joseph finally had to acknowledge the debt of around 3.7 million guilders in 1754, but without paying it. After Wolf's death in 1765, the repayment was completely stopped in 1784.

His correspondence from Augsburg from 1744 to 1748 was found in Prague . It offers numerous sources on Jewish history, especially on the expulsion of the Bohemian Jews.

literature

• Richard Bauer , Michael Brenner (ed.): Jewish Munich: from the Middle Ages to the Present , Munich 2006 ISBN 978-3406549793 (esp. Pp. 44–49)
• SH Lieben: Letters from 1744-1748 about the expulsion of the Jews from Prague. In: Yearbooks of the Society for the History of the Jews in the Cechoslovak Republic IV (1932), p . 353-479
• Barouh Mevorach: The Imperial Court-Jew Wolf Wertheimer as Diplomatic Mediator (during the War of Austrian Succession) . Hierosolymitana, 23 (1972), pp. 184-213
• Friedrich Battenberg : A court Jew in the shadow of his father: Wolf Wertheimer between Wittelsbach and Habsburg . In: Rotraud Ries: Court Jews: Economy and Interculturality. The Jewish business elite in the 18th century, Hamburg, 2002. - (Hamburg Contributions to the History of German Jews, 25), pp. 240–255

Web links

• Hohenems genealogy
• CERL

Single receipts

1. ^ Richard Bauer, Michael Brenner: Jewish Munich: from the Middle Ages to the present . CH Beck, 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-54979-3 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2020]).
2. ↑ Selma Stern , Marina Sassenberg: The court Jew in the age of absolutism: a contribution to European history in the 17th and 18th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-16-147662-4 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2020]).
3. ^ Yearbooks of the Society for the History of Jews in the Czechoslovak Republic 1929 to 1936. Volume IV, 1932 . Textor Verlag, ISBN 978-3-938402-03-0 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2020]).