Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild (1828 - 1901)

Born 16 May 1828 in Freie Stadt Frankfurt, Deutscher Bund

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 25 Jan 1901 at age 72 in Frankfurt, Regierungsbezirk Wiesbaden, Provinz Hessen-Nassau, Preußen, Deutsches Reich

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Biography

Wilhelm von Rothschild is Notable.

Wilhelm von Rothschild has Jewish Roots.

• Freiherr (Baron) Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild was a German banker and Mäzen / patron of the arts from the Rothschild family. Together with his eldest brother Mayer Carl, he took over the management of the Frankfurt bank 'M. A. von Rothschild & Söhne' in the Fahrgasse, after the death of his uncle Amschel Mayer in 1855. His death extinguished the male line of the German Frankfurt Rothschild family branch.

✡ Family-Info ✡

The Rothschild family is of Ashkenazi origin and originally came from a family of money changers and bankers who settled in Frankfurt's Judengasse (Frankfurt am Main). They had originally come to Frankfurt, like other Jewish families, after being expelled from Nuremberg in 1498.

The residence of the family was the Hinterhaus zur Pfanne (Judengasse 188), to which his ancestors had moved in 1664. The old residence was a house in the southern part of Judengasse called Zum roten Schild, which had been built in the 16th century by Isaak Elchanan Rothschild (first member of the family who was known to use the name Rothschild). The name is derived from the German Zum rothen Schild (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "at the red shield", in reference to the house where the family lived for many generations. As was often the case, the family had derived its surname from the name of the house. The name Rothschild was retained when the family moved to the northern part of Judengasse.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) is the founder of the House of Rothschild and founded the banking house M. A. Rothschild & Söhne. In recognition of his achievements, the Austrian Emperor Franz I. Joseph Karl von Österreich posthumously elevated him to the nobility in 1817. His five sons were ennobled and raised to the rank of Austrian barons (österreichischer Freiherrenstand) in 1822.

Wilhelm von Rothschild is Jewish.

Freiherr Wilhelm 'Willi' Carl von Rothschild was born on 16 May 1828 in Freie Stadt Frankfurt, Deutscher Bund, the third of four sons of Freiherr Kalman Carl Mayer (Rothschild) von Rothschild (1788–1855) and his wife Adelheid Herz (1800–1853).

His siblings were:

1. Charlotte von Rothschild (13 June 1819 – 13 March 1884)
2. Freiherr Mayer Carl (Rothschild) von Rothschild (5 August 1820 – 16 October 1886)
3. Adolph Carl (Rothschild) von Rothschild (21 May 1823 – 7 February 1900)
4. Anselm Alexander Carl (Rothschild) von Rothschild (24 May 1835 – 18 February 1854)

Wilhelm (21) married Freifrau Mathilde Hannah von Rothschild (17) (born on 5 March 1832 in Freie Stadt Frankfurt, Deutscher Bund; the second eldest daughter of his cousin from the Austrian branch of the family Anselm Salomon von Rothschild and Charlotte (Rothschild) von Rothschild) on 21 November 1849.

Their children were:

1. Georgine Sara von Rothschild (27 December 1851 – 11 April 1869)
2. Adelheid von Rothschild (19 August 1853 – 22 June 1935) married her cousin Edmond James de Rothschild
3. Minna Caroline (von Rothschild) von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (18 November 1857 – 1 May 1903) married Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild

The couple's first residence in 1849 was the Rothschild House (Zeilpalast) at Zeil 34 (now around 92), which Amschel Mayer von Rothschild had acquired in 1834. In the second half of the 1860s, Willi von Rothschild and his wife moved to the Neues Palais an der Grünen Burg in the Grüneburg Park. The Grüneburg area had belonged to the Rothschilds since 1837 and they built a palace there in 1845.

After the death of bank director Amschel Mayer von Rothschild (1773-1855) in 1855, the management of the bank 'M. A. von Rothschild & Söhne' officially transferred to Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild and his oldest brother Mayer Carl von Rothschild (1820-1886). After the death of his brother in 1886, Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild was the sole owner of the Frankfurt parent bank house.

Wilhelm passed away, aged 72, on ✡ 25 January 1901 in Frankfurt, Regierungsbezirk Wiesbaden, Provinz Hessen-Nassau, Preußen, Deutsches Reich.

תנצב"ה

His death extinguished the male line of the German Frankfurt branch of the Rothschild family. As there was no other male member of the remaining Rothschild family who wanted to take over the management of the bank, the Frankfurt banking house 'M. A. von Rothschild & Söhne' founded by his grandfather Mayer Amschel Rothschild (also the parent bank house of the Rothschild banking family) was liquidated in 1901.

Burial: Alter Jüdischer Friedhof, Rat-Beil-Strasse, Frankfurt-Nordend, Frankfurt am Main, Stadtkreis Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany

Sources

• Rothschild Archive
• Stolberg-Wernigerode, Otto - Neue deutsche Biographie, Bd.: 22, Rohmer - Schinkel, Berlin, 2005, Seite 131, Rothschild
• Ferguson, Niall (1998) - The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81539-3
• Amos Elon, Der erste Rothschild. Biographie eines Frankfurter Juden. Reinbek 1999
• Alexander Dietz, Stammbuch der Frankfurter Juden. Geschichtliche Mitteilungen über die Frankfurter Jüdischen Familien von 1349-1849, nebst einem Plane der Judengasse, Frankfurt a. M. 1907
• JewishGen.org
• The Jewish Encyclopedia - Rothschild
• Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt am Main
• Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main
• JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) Author: JewishGen, comp Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2008. Original data - This data is provided in partnership with JewishGen.org
• Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Juden in Königstein – Leben, Bedeutung, Schicksale, Stadtarchiv Königstein im Taunus, 1983
• Die jüdischen Friedhöfe in Frankfurt. Mit Fotos von Klaus Meier-Ude und Texten von Valentin Senger. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main, 1983
• Isidor Kracauer: Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt a. M. (1150-1824). 2 Bände, J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt am Main, 1925/27
• British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q26M-WXGT : 26 October 2019), Baron Wilhelm Carl Rothschild, 26 Jan 1901; citing Obituary, Manchester, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom, Records extracted by FindMyPast and images digitized by FamilySearch. The British Library, London; FHL microfilm 102,001,144
• Wikipedia: Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild
• Wikidata: Item Q90004, en:Wikipedia
• Stammliste der Familie Rothschild
• Find a Grave, memorial page for Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild (16 May 1828–25 Jan 1901), Find A Grave: Memorial #191728210, citing Alter Jüdischer Friedhof, Frankfurt am Main, Stadtkreis Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany; Maintained by Scooter T (contributor 48110330)