image:Moritz von bethmann.jpg, Moritz von Bethmann as seen by a caricaturist.
[The picture was accompanied by a verse,]
''Moritz Herr von Bethmann heißt er,''
''dem Vater gleicht er von Gesicht;''
''doch im übrigen beweist er,''
''der alte Bethmann ist er nicht.''
(von Bethmann, Moritz is his name,
his likeness and his father's are the same;
in every other known respect
old Bethmann he does not reflect.)
Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann (from 1854:
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...
von Bethmann), born 8 October 1811 in Frankfurt am Main, died 2 December 1877 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German banker.
Life
The oldest son of Simon Moritz von Bethmann (1768–1826) and ''Louise Friederike née Boode'' was only 15 years old when his father died. In 1833 he became the head of the ''Gebrüder Bethmann'' bank. Von Bethmann focused especially on railway construction. Together with the
House of Rothschild, he established three railroad companies in succession:
Taunus-Eisenbahn AG in 1836, Frankfurt-Hanauer Eisenbahn in 1844, and the
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn. In the 1850s he also invested in (among others) the Italian central railroad company, the Austrian state-controlled railroad company, and the Rhein-Nahe-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft.
From 1854 until the loss of Frankfurt's status as a
Free City in 1866, von Bethmann was the Prussian consul general in Frankfurt. In 1854 he was elevated to the status of a
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...
in the
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918.
The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...
.
In 1863 he hosted the assembly of German princes in his garden house. Like his father before him, he generously contributed to philanthropic causes and to the arts in Frankfurt.
Von Bethmann, who had to cope with a lifelong handicap due to a hip impediment, was married to ''Maria née
Freiin
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...
von Bose'' (1819–1882), with whom he had two sons and three daughters, among them ''Ludwig Simon Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann'', who was named after his grandfather ''Simon Moritz'' and who would later take the reins as the head of the
House of Bethmann.
Notes
See also
*
Bethmann family
Bibliography
* Wolfgang Klötzer (ed.): ''Frankfurter Biographie''. Vol. 1 A-L, Frankfurt am Main, Verlag Waldemar Kramer, 1994,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethmann, Moritz von
1811 births
1877 deaths
German bankers
Moritz