The Rothschild family tree stretches back 150 years.

In the Rothschild family, marriages are concluded only with representatives of the Catholic faith. Exceptions are made for women, but men are required to marry exclusively Catholic women.

The family tree of the Rothschilds is very confusing: all generations have kept the names of their ancestors.

At every family celebration, all guests were presented with a chocolate soufflé, this became a tradition over time, since the Rothschilds have always had a weakness for sweets.

The history of the Rothschild family begins with the city of Frankfurt, although now it says almost nothing about this family. Once, in a small Jewish ghetto, here he married Gutele Schnapper, got a small shop, and then had five sons (10 of 12 children survived). It is they who have achieved incredible success, fortune and fame in the field of business. Now in Frankfurt there is a Rothschild park, several documents from the city archives, the rest of the evidence was taken away by the Second World War.

It was Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) who once said: "Let me manage the money of the country, and I don't care who sets the laws there."

Where did the Rothschild surname come from?

Part of the surname "Rothschild" comes from the German "mouth" - "red". Mayer Rothschild's parents once lived in a house with a red roof. The peculiarity of their house served as a nickname for their family, since in those days Jews could not have surnames.

collecting coins

Mayer Amschel's ascent began with the study and collecting of old coins. At first, this occupation seemed completely hopeless, and given the total poverty, it was also stupid. By the way, Mayer Amschel made one fateful choice, abandoning a rather "warm" place in the exchange office (Hannover) after studying in favor of a hopeless Jewish ghetto with the humiliation of its people and the inability to earn money. 20 years later after studying and practicing in the office, Mayer Rothschild returns practically to "nowhere" and as a result makes a fortune! Another proof that the prospects are not always obvious.

Currency exchange

In the 18th century, Germany was like a patchwork land, where everyone spoke their own dialect and had their own currency. Mayer Rothschild could not stop selling old coins, because it was a rare and unstable income, although he managed to carry out some transactions even with royal persons. During the fairs, coins of various origins flocked from all over Germany - ducats, florins, etc. Mayer came up with the idea of \u200b\u200borganizing an exchange office for such fairs, and he welded well on the difference from the exchange.

Dynasty foundation

The head of the Rothschild family dreamed of a strong dynasty and did not lose by teaching his sons the skills of banking. After a while, 5 sons have achieved no less success than their father. They had energy, thirst for profit, the ability to see the prospect of income, not being greedy here and now. In 1800, a father makes his children partners. Until now, only family members have held key positions in banks and firms. This was an important and fundamental law of the dynasty.

Business was only passed on through the male line and no one could access it. Even the husbands of the daughters remained abroad and kept in the dark. It remains so to this day.

Betty Rothschild: daughter of one of her older brothers - Solomon. She became the wife of her own uncle, the younger brother of James.

The head of the family has always taught his children that the family is the most important thing. The bonds of brotherhood were so strong that the Rothschilds gradually introduced a new tradition into their family - to save not only money, but also the name within the family, as the royal family of the Habsburgs did. And the first to do this was James, the youngest son of Mayer Rothschild. On July 11, 1824, he married Betty, the daughter of his older brother, Solomon, that is, his niece. History notes 58 marriages that were concluded by the descendants of the elder Rothschild, moreover, half of them were with cousins.

This policy was driven by 3 main factors:

• preserve the name, preventing others from preying on it;
• preserve capital, and not split it into small parts;
• a dowry to family members of the same level as that of the Rothschilds could only be provided by the Rothschilds themselves.

Eldest son Amschel Rothschild

The eldest son, stayed to live in Frankfurt, in his father's house, in the same poor ghetto. He never had children, but he attached great importance to the fate of his nephews and nieces, keeping the dynasty intact due to family ties in marriages. It was he who introduced the tradition of holding wedding ceremonies for all family members in Frankfurt, in the same ghetto.

Dowager Gutele, wife of the founder of the Rothschild dynasty, remained in her house until the end of her life and died at the age of 96. It was to her that the newlyweds came to ask for blessings. It was Gutele who made the final decision on choosing a partner in a new marriage.

Once, a neighbor of Gutele in the ghetto, ran to her house, worried that her son might be taken to a new war. She wanted to know if there would be a war. To which the Rothschild Empress Dowager replied: "Nonsense, my boys won't let them."

The ancestor of the Rothschild dynasty, Angel Moses Bauer, owned a jewelry workshop with a gold Roman eagle on a red shield. Over time, the workshop began to be called "Red Shield", and this name - Rothschield - was taken as a surname by his son, Mayer Amschel, who later founded the banking house.

The Rothschild family was turned into a powerful financial clan by his five sons: Amschel Mayer, Solomon Mayer, Nathan Mayer, Kalman Mayer, James Mayer. We will introduce you to them today.

The Rothschild coat of arms depicts five arrows, symbolizing the five sons of Mayer Rothschild, referring to Psalm 126: "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior." Below on the coat of arms is written the family motto, in Latin, Concordia, Integritas, Industria (Consent, Honesty, Industriousness).

The Rothschild coat of arms depicts 5 arrows - 5 sons of Mayer

Amschel Mayer Rothschild

Amschel Mayer - eldest son of the founder of the Rothscheld dynasty

Here is a representative of the German branch of the Rothschild financial dynasty. Not much is known about him: he was the second child and eldest son of the founder of the dynasty. After the death of his father in 1812, Amschel Mayer became the head of a bank in Frankfurt am Main. In the documents, the names of father and son - Mayer Amschel and Amschel Mayer - were often confused. Only upon closer and more detailed study was it possible to establish which of them was meant. Amschel Mayer died childless, and the management of the banking house passed to his nephews.

Solomon Mayer Rothschild

Solomon Rothschild - 1st Jew to become an honorary citizen of Austria

Founder of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild dynasty. In 1817, his brother James Mayer Rothschild opened the bank de Rothschild Frères in Paris, where Solomon became its shareholder. With a financial education and many years of experience, in 1820 he went to Austria to formalize the family's existing interests in financing projects of the Austrian government, where in the capital he founded the SM von Rothschild bank, which began to finance the Nordbahn railway company, the first Austrian railway, and various capital intensive government enterprises. Under the leadership of Solomon Rothschild, the Austrian bank gained great success and began to play an important role in the development of the Austrian economy. In recognition of his services to Austria in 1822, Solomon Mayer Rothschild was admitted to the Austrian nobility and received the hereditary title of baron from the hands of Emperor Franz II. In 1843 he became the first Jew to become an honorary citizen of Austria.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild

Nathan Rothschild earned 40 million pounds sterling on one news

Here is the founder of the English branch of the Rothschilds. Nathan Rothschild's most successful business began in 1814, when the British government attracted his bank to finance a military campaign against Napoleon. Large sums of gold were transferred from England to Marshal Wellington and the Allies through the brothers' banks. The Rothschilds were ideal for the movement of huge amounts of money in troubled Europe, saving customers from the risks of transporting money and delays in payment.

Genius example: at the beginning of the battle, Napoleon had the advantage, and observers reported to London that he was winning. But to the aid of the British troops, under the leadership of Wellington, the Prussian corps arrived in time and the allies won. Nathan Rothschild's courier watched the battle and saw Napoleon flee to Brussels, which later played an important role: he reported this to his superiors. Everyone was convinced Wellington had lost the battle. Then Rothschild began to sell his shares on the stock exchange. After him, everyone began to sell. As a result, the prices of securities fell to almost zero. At that moment, Rothschild's agents bought up the shares on the cheap, and on June 21 at 11 pm Wellington's adjutant delivered to the government the Marshal's report: "Napoleon is defeated." Thus, Nathan Rothschild earned 40 million pounds sterling from this news ( for that money - this is a crazy amount).

Kalman (Karl) Mayer von Rothschild

Karl Rothschild had a reputation as the least gifted of the five brothers

He is the founder of the Naples branch of the Rothschild financial dynasty. He became known by the name Karl thanks to relatives from the English branch; gained experience in his father's business and lived with his parents until he was 29 years old. In 1821, the occupation of Naples by the Austrian army opened up new business opportunities for the Rothschild family. As a result, Karl was sent to Naples, where he founded the bank C M de Rothschild & Figli as the representative office of the parent bank. Although he had a reputation as the least gifted of the five brothers, he proved himself in Naples to be a strong financier and very capable of developing critical business relationships. So Charles established a good business relationship with the Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after which his bank became dominant in Naples. Following Karl's success, the Rothschild banking house was represented in all major European capitals and gained significant influence and advantage over its competitors.

In January 1832, he, a Jewish banker, received the ribbon and the star of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George from the hands of the new Pope Gregory XVI.

James Mayer Rothschild

The younger generation of Rothschilds calls James "The Great Baron"

James is the youngest of the sons. In 1812, he was only an agent of Nathan's brother in Paris, but over time he delved deeper into the financial affairs of the family bank. James proved to be the most successful in business, and after the death of his brother Nathan in 1836, he took over the leadership of the Rothschild case. He led his brothers and nephews into the "era of the industrial revolution." In the thirties and forties of the 19th century, James financed very large investment projects: the construction of a railway network around Paris and in the north of France. His bank helped the National Bank of France overcome the monetary crisis by providing enough gold to cover the money being issued. The younger generation of Rothschilds call him "The Great Baron".

For a quarter of a century, James became the second richest man in France, only the king's fortune was greater.

ROTHSCHILDS

Coat of arms of the Barons Rothschild

(Prussia)

Rothschild (Rothschild), a family of bankers, financial tycoons and philanthropists. For more than a century and a half, the surname Rothschild was, for both Jews and non-Jews, including anti-Semites, a common noun - a symbol of Jewish wealth and power. The surname Rothschild is derived from the German words `mouth shild` -` red shield`. Such a shield adorned the house of a small trader in antique coins and medals, Yitzhak Elhanan (died 1585) in the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt am Main. Although his grandson left the house, he and other descendants continued to bear the name Rothschild.

Mayer Anshel Rothschild -

founder the Rothschild dynasty.

The founder of the banking house, Mayer Anshel Rothschild (1744, Frankfurt am Main, - 1812, ibid.) At first did not differ from his ancestor either in status or occupation; acquaintance with the German aristocrat, a passionate collector of antique coins, General von Estorf opened Mayer Anshel Rothschild access to the palace of one of the richest European monarchs of that time, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Wilhelm IX.

Mayer Anshel Rothschild so disposed of the multimillion-dollar fortune entrusted to him at the time of the hasty flight of the Landgrave of Prague from the Napoleonic troops (mainly by providing large loans to the Danish and other European monarchs) that he not only preserved it, but also significantly increased it, laying the foundations of his own fortune at the same time.

Mayer Anshel's sons

The Rothschild family was turned into a powerful financial clan by the five sons of Mayer Anshel: Anshel Mayer Rothschild (1773, Frankfurt am Main, - 1855, ibid.); Shlomo Mayer Rothschild (1774, Frankfurt am Main, - 1855, Vienna); Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777, Frankfurt am Main - 1836, ibid.); Karl Mayer Rothschild (1778, Frankfurt am Main, - 1855, Naples) and James Jacob Mayer Rothschild (1792, Frankfurt am Main, - 1868, Paris). It was they who created and headed in the five largest European countries - Germany, Austria, England, Italy and France - banking houses, which even during their lifetime became the main creditors of monarchs and governments.

Completely uneducated in the European sense, the brothers, who at first even had difficulty speaking the languages \u200b\u200bof the countries where they settled, quickly achieved a manifold increase in their fortune, won key positions in the main European capital markets and, as a result, were able to indirectly influence political events in Europe. continent. Representatives of the Rothschild family boldly mastered the new areas of the economy created by the industrial revolution (in particular, railway construction and the production of non-ferrous metals in many European countries, including Russia, Asia and even Latin America).

Rothschild family home

on Jewish street in Frankfurt

The Austrian emperor bestowed the title of nobility on five brothers, and then the baronial title (both were later recognized by the rest of the European monarchs). Mayer Anshel's sons gave their children and grandchildren an excellent education, which allowed them to take root in the upper strata of society in their countries. Major events of the Rothschild family were the election in 1847 of Nathan Mayer's son, Baron Lionel Nathan Rothschild (1808-1879), to the House of Commons, and in 1885, the grandson of the founder of the English House of Rothschild, Nathaniel Rothschild (1840-1915), to the House lords.

It is characteristic that from the end of the 19th century. - early 20th century some members of the Rothschild family began to prefer science, literature, art, government and social activities to financial and commercial interests, and often achieved success in these areas (including election to the London Royal Society). Family members, who traditionally continued to engage in finance and other types of business, increasingly combined them with a passion for collecting paintings, sculptures, works of applied art, porcelain, rare books, etc.

At present, only the English and French branches of the Rothschild family exist. The Italian branch of the Rothschild family lost its financial and commercial importance after the death of its founder, Karl Mayer Rothschild; German ceased to exist with the death of Anshel Mayer's heir - Wilhelm Karl Rothschild (1828-1901); Austrian - under Louis Nathaniel Rothschild (1882-1955) in 1938 after the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany. The surviving two branches, although they lost in the first decades of the 20th century. their leadership in the financial world still remain a very influential force in it.

Genealogical treerothschild family

The members of the Rothschild family never forgot that they were Jews and, albeit for different reasons, always attached great importance to this. For the first generations of the Rothschilds, the combination of loyalty to their Jewishness and a pragmatic attitude towards their fellow believers, free from any sentimentality, remained typical. They strictly followed the mandate of Mayer Anshel Rothschild - under no circumstances to renounce the faith of their ancestors - although they had to overcome numerous additional obstacles to success because of this.

None of them converted to Christianity, did not marry a non-Jewish woman (marriages between cousins \u200b\u200band cousins, uncles and nieces, etc. were very common among them); women - members of the Rothschild family, if they married Christians (usually with representatives of the most aristocratic families), usually retained their religion (for example, Hannah Rothschild / 1851-90 /, the granddaughter of the founder of the London branch of the family, who entered marriage to Lord A. F. Rosebery, future British Prime Minister). The Rothschilds also became related with representatives of the largest banking houses in Europe, in particular, Eduard Rothschild (1868-1949) was married to the daughter of Matilda Fuld, the granddaughter of Baron E. Gunzburg.

The descendants of Mayer Anshel Rothschild were invariably guided by another covenant received from him - in all their relationships with people (except for the family), prioritize profit and financial success. Although the interests of Jews were not indifferent to them, preference, as a rule, was given to opportunities for further enrichment. Thus, the ancestor of the family and his five sons during the Napoleonic Wars accurately foresaw a great benefit in remaining loyal to the European monarchs - enemies of Napoleon I, who did not hide their intention to abolish the Jewish equality declared by the French emperor.

On the coat of arms Rothschilds depicted five arrows,

symbolizing the five sons of Mayer Rothschild,

referring to Psalm 127:"Like arrows in the hands of a warrior."

The family motto is written on the coat of arms below, in Latin:

Concordia, Integritas, Industria (Consent, Honesty, Diligence).

However, Mayer Anshel Rothschild at the end of his life, when this did not harm the financial interests of the family, achieved the consent of Archbishop K.-T. Dahlberg, prince-primate and president of the Union of Rhine, created under the protectorate of Napoleon, to provide civil equality for the Jews. The position of the members of the Rothschild family remained the same after the Napoleonic wars, when anti-Jewish legislation was fully or partially restored in most European countries, and a wave of mass anti-Jewish protests swept through many of them.

The Rothschilds' business ties with European monarchs and governments depended little on the attitude of those towards their Jewish subjects, but where this could not harm the financial interests of the family, the Rothschilds were ready to demonstrate an interest in the fate of their fellow believers. Thus, in 1815, they facilitated a trip to the Vienna Congress of a Jewish delegation, hoping in vain to persuade its participants to accept a declaration on the civil equality of Jews in their countries. In 1819, the brothers (especially James Jacob Rothschild) themselves and through business partners just as unsuccessfully convinced the ministers of the newly created German Confederation that it was in their own interests to stop and continue to prevent violence against Jews (see Hep-Hep; also Israel - people in the diaspora. New time: until the end of emancipation; from the 18th century to 1880).

Karl Mayer Rothschild

Around the same time, Karl Mayer Rothschild in Italy tried to condition the granting of a large loan to the Pope on his assistance in the abolition of the Jewish ghetto in the Italian capital. Actions of this kind were not alien to the representatives of the third and subsequent generations of the Rothschild family (for example, in 1878 the Rothschilds contributed to the inclusion of the Jewish question on the agenda of the Berlin Congress, which adopted the decision, which remained largely on paper, on the civil equality of the Jewish minorities in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia), but they were usually not active fighters for the rights of Jews.

For themselves, as a rule, they managed to achieve a special status: in 1842, the head of the Austrian banking house Shlomo Mayer Rothschild received the right to own real estate in Vienna, who before that (despite the enormous services rendered to members of the imperial family of Habsburgs, close relations with the all-powerful Chancellor K. Metternich, noble rank and title of baron) for more than 20 years he lived with his family in the hotel "Roman Emperor".

The Rothschilds showed perseverance in the struggle for Jewish equality mainly when they could achieve their own goals only in this way. Thus, in 1847, when Lionel Nathan Rothschild (see above) could not take his place in the House of Commons due to the need to take an oath on the Gospel, the Rothschild family launched a persistent campaign to abolish this rule and in 1858 achieved the abolition. which allowed Lionel Nathan Rothschild, who won the election once again, to take the oath on the Hebrew Bible.

Over time, the Rothschild family was less and less able to combine loyalty to their own Jewishness with a reluctance to take even the smallest risk to protect the interests of their persecuted people. This contradiction was aggravated by the fact that the wealth, connections and influence of the descendants of Nathan Mayer Rothschild in England and James Jacob Mayer Rothschild in France made them the de facto leaders of the Jewish community, sometimes and formally they were part of its governing bodies: for example, Lionel Rothschild and his brother Nathaniel Rothschild in 1812-70 - in the Board of Delegations, Nathaniel also in the Joint Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Jewish Community; Alphonse Rothschild (1827-1905) was President of the Central Consistory of France from 1869.

The English and, especially, the French Rothschilds, who did not publicly react to the Dreyfus affair, although they secretly provided all kinds of support to the Dreyfusars, could no longer express their attitude to the events of the late 19th century. - early 20th century in Russia - the bloody Jewish pogroms inspired by the authorities and the government policy aimed at worsening the already disenfranchised position of the Jews.

Thus, Baron Alphonse Rothschild (see above), the head of the Parisian bank "Rothschild Freer", who had close business ties with the government (Ministry of Finance) of Russia, in response to the wave of Jewish pogroms in the 1880s. announced the termination of all financial relations with this country. In May 1891, his bank announced its refusal to fulfill the agreement signed a month earlier on providing Russia with a loan of 320 million francs.

This decision, unprecedented in the financial world, caused numerous rumors in European capitals - not everyone reacted with confidence to the official statement of the bank, in which this step was presented as a reaction to the decree of Emperor Alexander III to evict Jews from Moscow, since information about this decree appeared in newspapers at the end of March of the same year, when the loan agreement had not yet been signed.

The French and English Rothschilds (Baron Gustav de Rothschild, 1829-1911, and Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, 1840-1915) reacted in the same way to the pogroms in Russia in 1905: they took part in organizing financial assistance to the victims of the pogroms (each of them donated for this ten thousand pounds) and even made sure that the funds raised were delivered to Russia through their London bank. This was motivated by the desire to prevent the use of donations for radical purposes, which would provide additional food for accusations of Jewish bankers in financing the Russian revolution.

At the same time, they strongly discouraged attempts by Jewish leaders in their countries to organize massive public campaigns to protest against officially incited anti-Semitism in Russia, arguing that this would provoke even greater hatred of Jews in the Russian ruling circles. Members of the Rothschild family did not remain indifferent to the suffering of Jews in Germany after the establishment of the Nazi regime there.

Already in the fall of 1933 in London, Yvonne Rothschild (1899-1977), wife of Anthony Rothschild (1887-1961), founded the Society for Aid to Jewish Women and Children in Germany; in Paris, Robert Rothschild (1880-1946) and his wife Nellie Rothschild (1886-1945) took an active part in the creation of the Fund to help Jewish refugees from Germany; in the same years Miriam Rothschild (1908-2005) took care of Jewish children who arrived in England from Germany, and James Rothschild (1896-1984) moved a Jewish orphanage (more than 20 boys aged 5-15 years and the director of the orphanage with his family ) from Frankfurt am Main to England and provided them with their own home.

Lord Victor Rothschild (1910-1990) in the Times newspaper (November 19, 1938) appealed to the British public to seriously assess the threat posed by Nazi Germany to Western democracy and all its values \u200b\u200b(during the Second World War, Victor Rothschild, a well-known scholar -biologist, contributed to the victory over Nazi Germany, in particular, he served in military intelligence).

The cohesion, wealth and influence of the Rothschild family have long, not without success, used international anti-Semitism to prove the thesis about the desire of the Jews for world domination and the enslavement of the peoples who give them shelter. Already in the 1820s. anti-Semitic cartoons appear in newspapers in a number of European countries depicting the Rothschilds as spiders sucking blood from Europe, or as robbers holding European monarchs by the throats. In the anti-Semitic pamphlets of the time, the Rothschilds are titled nothing more than "kings of bankers and bankers of kings", "kings of Jews and Jews of kings" or "Jewish kings and royal Jews."

From the end of the first half of the 19th century. the reference to the Jewish origin of the Rothschilds becomes a favorite device of the French anti-Semites. So, in 1846, when, just three weeks after the start of operation of the railway built by the Rothschild company, a catastrophe occurred, which claimed 37 human lives, the anti-Semitic pamphlet "The Story of Rothschild I, King of the Jews", in which the incident was not blamed so much to the Rothschilds themselves, how much to innate Jewish arrogance and cynicism towards the French.

For right-wing, conservative anti-Semites (for example, E. Drumont, see Anti-Semitism), the Rothschilds are a symbol and embodiment of Jewish dominance in France, a secret stronghold of radicals and revolutionaries who are destroying it. The anti-Semitic theorist P. Proudhon saw in the Rothschilds the personification of the capitalist essence of the entire Jewish nation, the creator and support of the most inhuman bourgeois system of exploitation of workers.

The name Rothschild is associated with a wave of anti-Semitism that swept France in the early 1880s. due to the bankruptcy of the Rothschilds rival, the Catholic bank "General Union", created by E. Bontu "to combat the dominance of Jewish capital", and the loss of their savings by thousands of his depositors (not only the Rothschilds were accused, but also the Jews in general as "foreigners malicious against Christianity and all of France "). The name Rothschild was later turned into the most sinister character in the racial-anti-Semitic mythology of National Socialism.

The attitude towards the Rothschilds in the Jewish people itself was far from unambiguous. In the image of the Rothschilds that developed in Jewish folklore, admiration for the wealth, power and luxurious life of fellow believers was combined with a considerable share of plebeian irony in relation to the arrogance and arrogance of the rich and to their own absurd dreams of being in their place. This is how this folklore image appears in the works of Shalom Aleichem, numerous anecdotes, parables, sayings, folk songs, etc.

The more complex attitude towards the Rothschilds of the socially and politically active strata of Jewry became especially evident in the twenties between 1881 and 1901, when a wave of Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe poured into Western Europe. Sincerely wanting or considering himself obligated to help the crowds of these disadvantaged and needy Jews (Lord Nathaniel Rothschild, for example, as a member of the royal commission created in 1909, designed to limit the further influx of emigrants to Great Britain, selflessly fought to ensure that the imposed restrictions were as little as possible Jews), the Rothschilds came across a sharply critical attitude towards themselves on the part of Jewish immigrants.

For most of them, it turned out to be unacceptable for the Rothschilds to promote the early naturalization, social and cultural acclimatization of newly arrived Jews in Western society. This attitude was unanimously, albeit for different reasons, rejected by three main groups of Jewish immigrants: immigrants from city and small-town ghettos, who freely spoke only in Yiddish, strictly followed religious precepts and strove to preserve this way of life in the new conditions; fierce persecution and humiliation in the countries where they lived, radical elements who joined the ranks of left-wing extremist parties and organizations and advocated the revolutionary overthrow of Western state and public institutions; Zionists, who saw in such an attitude a direct path to assimilation.

The harsh and passionate accusations by activists of all these groups of immigrants against the Rothschilds and other "self-righteous and selfish Jews" who are only interested in their own profits were often not very different from attacks from anti-Semites. The Rothschilds reacted painfully to this criticism, but at the same time, in the opinion of many, gave good reasons for it. In particular, the nationally oriented circles of Jewry did not forgive the Rothschilds for their sharply negative attitude towards Zionism.

Like other wealthy Jews, the Rothschilds did not refuse to support the presence of their Orthodox fellow believers in Jerusalem, where in the 1850s. James Jacob Rothschild and his wife Betty founded a hospital for the poor, and in the 1860s. with the money of the London Rothschilds, the still existing school for girls named after Evelyn de Rothschild (in memory of the daughter of Lionel Rothschild, who died untimely soon after the wedding) was opened there.

The situation was different with political Zionism, in which the Rothschilds from the very beginning saw a threat to all their foundations and orientations in life. Based on their own experience, they believed that Jews can and should successfully integrate in the countries where fate has thrown them, and that the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a sovereign Jewish state in Eretz Israel and the mass resettlement of Jews there will not fail to use anti-Semites and racists as proof of the validity of their claims. about the ineradicable separatism and alienation of Jews to European nations.

The Rothschilds even accused the Zionists of giving anti-Semites a reason to demand the complete expulsion, or at least all encouragement, of the emigration of Jews from Europe. The long-term rejection of Zionism by the Rothschild family had a purely pragmatic basis - not seeing in it anything but groundless projection, they did not want to associate their name with a "gamble" that would surely end in financial bankruptcy and a political scandal. In this regard, all the other Rothschilds were greatly disturbed by the position and activities of Edmond de Rothschild, who, remaining for a long time in opposition to political Zionism, still refused to publicly condemn it.

Some members of the Rothschild family began to treat Zionism more favorably only after the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, when its political goals ceased to look absolutely fantastic in their eyes. Even the second Lord Rothschild, Nathaniel, in the last months of his life changed his staunch assimilationist position to an almost pro-Zionist one.

For some time, his son Lionel Walter Lord Rothschild (1868-1937), to whom, as the most prominent Jew in the country, addressed his letter, outlining the commitment of the British government to contribute to the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, was very actively involved in the activities of the Zionist organization of Great Britain, the Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Balfour.

Even the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the numerous wars in which it had to defend its existence, arousing great interest and sympathy from most members of the Rothschild family, did not turn them into supporters of Zionism. Baron Guy de Rothschild (1909-2007), author of the bestselling autobiographical book Against Luck (1983), seemed to express the general feelings of the family members when he admitted that Israel is not their country, its banner is not theirs. banner, but that the courage and military prowess of the Israelites filled their hearts with pride, made them less vulnerable to hostile attacks, and brought the liberation of some important part of their "I". These feelings stimulate in some members of the Rothschild family the desire to participate in the construction of the Jewish state.

Thus, Victor Rothschild (see above), who did not consider himself a Zionist, actively supported Israel in the field of science (he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the H. Weizmann Research Institute and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem), attracted British public opinion to the side of Israel and was rumored to have contributed to the establishment of Israeli intelligence (attacks on him for this in the English press hinted at his lack of loyalty to the British homeland).

Rothschild park in Israel

In the field of economics and finance, the great-grandson and namesake of the “father of the Jewish Yishuv”, Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1926-97), who financed the construction of the country's first oil pipeline from the Red to the Mediterranean Sea and one of the first chemical plants, provided important assistance in founding The State Bank of Israel (Bank Israel) and in the implementation of some other projects.

The well-known and widely advertised philanthropic activities of the Rothschild family are by no means confined to Israel - as in the past, they donate large sums not only to Jewish, but also non-Jewish hospitals, schools, kindergartens, orphanages, cultural and scientific foundations, etc. ., wanting to show that they are both good Jews and good French and English.

Eprussey Rothschild Museum on the French Riviera

A notable contribution to many areas of Israeli life is the Rothschild Foundation, created in 1957 by Dorothy Rothschild (1895-1988), the wife of James Armand Rothschild (1878-1957): educational television was created in the country, the Open University and a number of branches in other universities (for example, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Center for Adult Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Faculty of Nursing at Tel Aviv University), the Music Center in Jerusalem's Mishkenot Sha'ananim area has been built, exhibitions and displays at the Israel Museum are being organized, and equipped with modern equipment new hospitals, homes for the elderly and disabled, student scholarships, Rothschild Science Achievement Prizes, and more. The ballet ensemble that bears her name, created in 1964 at the expense of Baroness Bat-Sheva Rothschild (1914-99), is very popular in the country and abroad.

In subsequent years, there was a certain cooling of the Rothschild family to the State of Israel, both due to the increasing departure of some of its members from Jewry (for example, the current Lord Rothschild Nathaniel Charles / was born in 1936 / converted to Christianity and married to a non-Jewish woman), and due to the frequent disagreement of the government circles of the country with their advice and recommendations. However, a number of facts indicate that members of the Rothschild family did not refuse to participate in the life of the Jewish state. Thus, the Rothschild Foundation financed the construction of a new building for the Supreme Court of Israel (1992).

ROTHSCHILDS

Family heraldry.

18 century. On one of the streets in the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt am Main there is a jewelry workshop of the money changer Angel Moses Bauer.

When passers-by asked local antique dealers how to find Bauer's jewelry store, they usually referred to two words: "Red Shield."

The fact is that on the facade of the building where the workshop was located, there was an emblem with the image of a golden eagle on a red shield.

In 1743 Bauer had a son, Mayer Amschel. He inherited his father’s shop, but, like most German Jews, he did not have a family name. Mayer decided to take the name of the emblem - "Red Shield" or "Rotschield". This is how the famous Rothschild dynasty began. A modest Jewish jeweler turned into a famous banker, and then his five sons continued the business. In 1816, the Rothschilds received the title of baron and entered the highest noble society.

The main image of the Rothschild coat of arms to this day is a red shield and five arrows connected together by a chain. The key to this symbol is in the quotation from the biblical psalm - "As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are young sons." Five arrows represent the unity of the sons of Rothschild. On the coat of arms, also, the family's motto - "Concordia, Integritas, Industria" ("Consent, Honesty, Diligence").

Legendary family. Legendary story. ... One person created a dynasty, its values. He laid the foundation for the creation of the family coat of arms, in which he invested what he valued and considered fundamental for his family. His father's business is the Red Shield jewelry workshop, which gave the family a famous surname, and its future - five sons, five arrows in his hand. And the descendants of Mayer Rothschild value this heritage, are proud of their surname and family coat of arms. It is an unbreakable bond between past and future generations.

There are many such stories. Famous families are not the only ones who have the privilege of proudly displaying the clan motto to the world. Today it is available to everyone. Is your family any less wonderful than the Rothschild family? Yes, you may not be the heirs of a billionaire state, not have a title of nobility and a famous surname, but this does not detract from the dignity of any kind. After all, every family has its own traditions, the history of ancestors is sometimes more legendary than that of eminent personalities.

Family heraldry is a rich family heritage.

When we look at old photographs, grandfather's medals, diplomas of our parents, it is always interesting what stories are connected with this, I want to know what our family lived and breathed many years ago. Values \u200b\u200band ideals. Ups and downs. Turning Points and Feats. Because each family has its own exploits - small and large. Our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers - whom we value, and ours personally - who will be treasured by our descendants.

You can put it all together and create the coat of arms of your family by contacting the heraldry for help. You create the basis - what exactly you would like to express in your coat of arms, and heraldry embodies this professionally. After all, heraldry is a separate science with its own terminology, requirements and rules. You need to be a qualified specialist to take into account all the nuances and create exactly what you need, taking into account the specifics of the heraldic business.

And, soon enough, yours, or dishes, furniture, interior items, your diary, even clothes and jewelry. There are a huge number of options. Not all the Rothschilds and Rockefellers flaunt their family crests! We are also not bastard.

On May 17, investment bank Rothschild & Co will be headed by a representative of the seventh generation of the famous Rothschild dynasty - 37-year-old Alexander de Rothschild. For two hundred years, the family has been strictly observing the precepts of the patriarch and the founder of the clan, who ordered the descendants to always act together, entrust the management of the family business only to male relatives and maintain secrecy in business. The famous banking house has been dealing with transactions of historical magnitude for centuries. The image of the all-powerful behind-the-scenes puppeteers was formed under the impression of their activities. Conspiracy theorists are sure that the famous family, whose branches are widely spread in Europe and the United States, controls the world's finances with help. The origins and change of generations in the well-known banking clan are in the material.

Shop under a red sign

The end of the eighteenth century is an era of gigantic changes for Western Europe: the revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy in France, the birth of industrial production, a series of large-scale wars, the gradual loss of political influence by the aristocratic landowners and the emancipation of oppressed groups. It was at this time that the foundation of the Rothschilds' financial power was laid. The founder of the dynasty is Mayer Amschel, the son of Amschel Moses, a humble money changer from the Jewish quarter in Frankfurt am Main.

His father wanted the bright boy to become a rabbi, but Mayer showed a penchant for worldly affairs. For some time he practiced at the Oppenheimer's banking house in Hanover. Then he worked in his father's exchange shop under a red sign (in German it sounds like Rot Schild, later this phrase became a surname). Having “caught the trends”, Mayer Amschel started buying old coins and medals. The German nobility of that time was fond of collecting various antiquities, so the courteous and neat young man quickly made useful acquaintances with the powerful of this world, and the exchange shop was transformed into a bank.

The career of the ghetto moneychanger's son took off after he met the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Wilhelm. Traditionally, Jewish bankers were involved in various financial transactions for the German princes. For example, representatives of the House of Oppenheimers were the court bankers of the Habsburgs in Vienna, the King of Prussia Frederick II the Great used the services of the Berlin firm Ephraim and Sons. Bypassing competitors with the help of patronage and gifts to patrons, Mayer Amschel became Wilhelm's chief court financier.

Everybody in the house

The family's well-being went up sharply, the growing children were actively involved in the family business. Like fairy-tale characters, throwing arrows in search of happiness, Mayer's sons dispersed to the largest cities in Europe: Solomon to Vienna, Nathan to Manchester (he later moved to London), Kalman to Naples, Jacob to Paris. The eldest son remained in Frankfurt am Main. In memory of this, the Rothschild coat of arms depicts five arrows and a motto in Latin: Concordia, Integritas, Industria - Consent, Honesty, Diligence.

This is how the international financial network was founded, covering the most developed European countries. Formally competing, the brothers supported each other in every possible way and exchanged news using coded Yiddish correspondence. Subsequently, the English (from Nathan) and French (from Jacob) turned out to be the most viable branches of the family tree - they still flourish.

The court financier approached the marriages of children very seriously: the sons brought daughters-in-law with a substantial dowry to the family, the spouses of the daughters were also part of the clan, but worked in lower positions. In any case, sons-in-law did not have a chance to take the helm of the family business. The wealth of the clan could only be controlled by a male descendant of Mayer Amschel. The money earned had to remain in the family, so Mayer's descendants married cousins \u200b\u200band second cousins.

However, this is what the entire elite did. For example, by the end of the 19th century, the Austrian imperial family turned out to be so ramified that marriages between relatives belonging to different branches of the Habsburg clan became more and more frequent, Andrei Shary and Yaroslav Shimov write in their book Austria-Hungary: the fate of the empire. Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand, who became heir to the throne in 1895, was indignant about this: “If someone from our family falls in love on the side, there will certainly be some nonsense in the pedigree that prevents such a marriage. So it turns out that we have a husband and wife, all twenty-fold relatives. As a result, half of the children are fools or complete idiots. "

The Rothschilds entered into marriages exclusively with adherents of Judaism and won the glory of the "Jewish royal family". The rules established by Mayer Amschel remained unchanged for 200 years, only in the 1970s, David René, a representative of the French branch of the Rothschilds, married a Catholic, Italian aristocrat Olympia Aldobrandini. They raised their daughters in the Catholic faith, but the only son of Alexander - the future heir to the family business - in Judaism. Also in 2010, the Rothschilds for the first time appointed an out-of-kin person - Briton Nigel Higgins as the executive director of the investment bank NM Rothschild. True, Higgins was still not a completely alien - by this time he had worked for the family for a quarter of a century.

To whom the war

The Rothschilds could have remained at the level of the small-town rich, if not for the war. In 1806, the French Emperor Napoleon I invaded Germany. Landgrave Wilhelm fled the country, leaving affairs in the care of his court banker. It was then that Mayer came in handy with his arrow, fired in the direction of Foggy Albion. Son Nathan instantly gave up the textile trade in Manchester and retrained as a stock exchange tycoon in London.

The French confiscated part of Wilhelm's gold, but the main capital of his boss, Rothschild Sr., thanks to Nathan's securities operations, managed to transfer to England. To celebrate, the landgrave wrote to the court bankers for a symbolic commission all the rights to manage their securities, and Nathan started buying and selling British government bonds. This is how the Rothschilds became the first European millionaires and financed Britain's wars against Napoleon. One of their brightest operations is ferrying gold for Wellington's army in Spain.

On September 19, 1812, the Russian army exhausted by battles under the command of Field Marshal Prince Golenishchev-Kutuzov retreated to Podolsk. On the same day, the founder of the Rothschild house, Mayer Amschel, died in a house on Jewish Street in Frankfurt am Main in his seventieth year, but his business lived on and grew - the wealth and influence of the Rothschild brothers increased along with the amounts of loans they provided.

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There is a legend that Nathan learned about the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo a day earlier than anyone else in London, but he came to the stock exchange with a sad face and started selling government bonds. Seeing this, the traders decided that the British and their allies were defeated, and rushed to get rid of the papers for next to nothing. After waiting for the collapse, agents of the cunning Nathan bought up the fallen in price government bonds. As a result, the London Rothschild earned 40 million pounds from this operation. However, some researchers deny this story's credibility - Nathan bought securities amid defeatist sentiments before the Battle of Waterloo, they say.

The peace that was established in Europe after the Napoleonic wars also contributed to the growth of the family's well-being - the countries ravaged by war needed loans to rebuild. The grateful victorious monarchs endowed the banker brothers with the nobility, and the Austrian emperor Franz II granted the Rothschilds the baronial title. Napoleon tried to conquer Europe with guns and cannons, but he lost. The Old World submitted to bills and loans from a banking family.

World behind the scenes

The nineteenth century was the golden age of the Rothschilds. Europe, and with it the whole world, was rapidly changing, the Rothschild banking network financed the construction of industrial enterprises, railways, the purchase by Great Britain of the Suez Canal, the development of oil fields in the Russian Empire (on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan).

The Rothschilds partnered with De Beers in the search for diamonds and gold in South Africa. They are accused of helping to unleash military conflicts, for example, the devastating war of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay with Paraguay. Numerous descendants of Mayer Amschel were fond of luxury and art, the construction of palaces and charity. But by the end of the century, the family's fame began to fade. Perhaps they themselves wanted it, because money, as you know, loves silence, and left and right publicists blamed the bankers for all the troubles of mankind.

In the twentieth century, the Rothschild structures began to specialize in large-scale mergers and acquisitions. Conspiracy theorists consider the Rothschilds to be the masterminds behind the First Bank of the United States, the prototype of the Federal Reserve System (FRS). The dynasty is ranked among the real masters of the system. The Fed is officially owned by 12 Federal Reserve Banks, approved but organized as private companies.