Louis Nathaniel, Baron de Rothschild (german: Ludwig Nathaniel, Freiherr von Rothschild) was an Austrian baron from the famous Rothschild family. He was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

on 5 March 1882 and died of heart failure while swimming in Montego Bay,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

on 15 January 1955.

Early life

He was the son of Baron Albert Salomon Anselm von Rothschild and Bettina Caroline de Rothschild (1858–1892). He owned a spectacular palace in Vienna, the

Palais Rothschild Palais Rothschild refers to a number of palaces in Vienna, Austria, which were owned by members of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild banking family. Apart from their sheer size and elegance, they were famous for the huge collections of valu ...

, that housed an exquisite art collection and antiques.

Banker

After the death of his father, Albert Rothschild, in 1911, he took over the management of the Creditanstalt bank and industrial companies owned by the Austrian branch of the Rothschilds.

Held for ransom by Nazis

After the Anschluß of Austria to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in March 1938, he was arrested at the airport at

Aspern Aspern () is part of Donaustadt, the 22nd district of Vienna, Austria. History The area is known because of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, which was fought in the nearby Lobau on 21 and 22 May 1809. In that battle, the Austrian army, led by A ...

and held for ransom by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. He was released only after lengthy negotiations between the family and the Nazis and upon payment of $21,000,000, believed to have been the largest bail bond in history for any individual. While imprisoned he was visited by

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

. Rothschild apparently impressed the SS leader, who subsequently ordered that Rothschild's prison conditions be improved with better furniture and sanitation facilities. Despite appeals from Queen Mary of the United Kingdom and possibly the

Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, ...

, Rothschild was held in Vienna's Hotel Metropole while the German government attempted to expropriate his business concerns. He was imprisoned at least through July 1938, and his property placed under control of a German "commissioner". Felix Somary, in his memoirs, recalls that, soon before the Anschluss, he phoned to the baron repeatedly, in a desperate attempt to convince him to leave Austria. The day before the Anschluss, Louis's brother Alphons and his wife were visiting him in Switzerland, wanting to go back into Austria; he persuaded them to remain there, and to get his children Francesca de Rothschild and Heidi de Rothschild away from Austria to

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. Finally allowed to leave Austria, Louis survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Aryanisations and seizures

All of the Rothschild possessions were plundered and subsequently " Aryanised". The city-palace of the family was destroyed after the war. The baron never received most of his former belongings back, since most of the paintings were taken over by the Austrian state, which did not allow the paintings to leave the country. In 1998, over 200 art works were returned to the Rothschild heirs by the Austrian Government, and were placed at Christie's in London for auction in 1999.

Personal life

In 1946 he married the Countess Hildegarde Karoline Johanna Maria von Auersperg (1895–1981), the only daughter of Count Anton von Auersperg (1858-1924) and his wife Valerie Schenk von Lédecz (1875-1931). They lived in East Barnard, Vermont (United States) and England. He died childless in 1955.

Postwar

In 2020, in one of the largest ever restitution claims filed, Rothschild heirs sued Vienna over a trust seized by Nazis.

Notes

External links

AEIOU , Louis Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild

Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien
register of Louis and Alphonse Rothschild's art collection seized by the Nazis, on OAPEN Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Rothschild, Louis Nathaniel von Louis Nathaniel Austrian bankers 1882 births 1955 deaths Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Jewish art collectors