Rothschild, << ROTHS chyld or ROTH chyld, >> is the name of a German family that founded a famous banking firm in the late 1700’s. The family opened banks in several European countries in the 1800’s, and the company became known as the House of Rothschild. Today, the family operates banks, investment firms, and offices in the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and other countries. The family has also been prominent in industry, philanthropy, politics, and science.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
(1743-1812), who founded the banking dynasty, was the son of a merchant of Frankfurt, Germany. Mayer Rothschild opened a bank in Frankfurt, where he made profitable investments for the royal families of several European nations. He trained his five sons in conservative money management. Rothschild made investments that produced reasonable profits rather than excessive earnings. These methods helped him make a spectacular fortune.
After Rothschild’s death, his sons expanded the family business. The oldest son, Amschel Mayer Rothschild (1773-1855), took control of the Frankfurt bank. Branches of the House of Rothschild were opened in Vienna, Austria, by Salomon Mayer Rothschild (1774-1855); in Naples, Italy, by Carl Mayer Rothschild (1788-1855); and in Paris, France, by James Mayer Rothschild (1792-1868).
Nathan Mayer Rothschild
(1777-1836), the third son of Mayer Rothschild, founded the London branch of the House of Rothschild. He later became a financial agent of the English government. Rothschild helped Britain defeat France in the Napoleonic Wars (1796-1815) by providing funds for the British Army.
Lionel Rothschild
(1808-1879), Nathan Rothschild’s oldest son, won election to Parliament six times between 1847 and 1857. But each time he was denied admission because, as a Jew, he refused to take an oath supporting Christianity. Rothschild worked to change the law that required the oath and, in 1858, he became the first Jewish member of the House of Commons. In 1885, his son Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1840-1915) became the first Jew admitted to the House of Lords.
Guy de Rothschild
(1909-2007), the great-great-grandson of Mayer Rothschild, was president of the family’s bank in Paris from 1949 to 1981. The French government took control of all privately owned banks in France in 1981. The Rothschild bank in Paris had controlled many of the family’s industrial holdings, which the government also nationalized. The Paris branch had been the family’s main bank since its bank in Austria closed in 1938, just before World War II. In 1981, Rothschild and his cousin Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of the London bank, became co-chairmen of the family’s American investment company.
David de Rothschild
(1942-…), son of Guy de Rothschild, rebuilt the French branch of the family’s bank in the mid-1980’s. In 2003, the British and French branches merged under his leadership.
