Baron Jacob Adolphe Reinach (17 April 1840 – 19 November 1892), known as Jacques de Reinach was a French banker of

Jewish German The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

origin, involved in many major financial deals before being brought down by the

Panama scandals The Panama scandals (also known as the Panama Canal Scandal or Panama Affair) was a corruption affair that broke out in the French Third Republic in 1892, linked to a French company's failed attempt at constructing a Panama Canal. Close to half ...

. He was the son of Clementine Oppenheim (1822–1899) and her husband Adolphe de Reinach (1814–1879), Belgian consul in Frankfurt, ennobled in Italy in 1866 and then confirmed as a noble by William I of Germany.

Life

He settled in Paris at the end of the 1850s and in 1863 founded the bank Kohn-Reinach with his brother in law, international financier . On 6 May 1863, he married his first cousin Fanny Emden. Their children were Henriette-Clémentine (who married

Joseph Reinach Joseph Reinach (30 September 1856 – 18 April 1921) was a French author and politician. Biography He was born in Paris. His two brothers Salomon Reinach and Théodore Reinach would later be known in the field of archaeology. After studying at L ...

), Lucien and Juliette-Maximilienne. He served in the National Guard during the

Siege of Paris (1870–1871) The siege of Paris took place from 19 September 1870 to 28 January 1871 and ended in the capture of the city by forces of the various states of the North German Confederation, led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The siege was the culmination of the F ...

and was naturalised as a French citizen in 1871. His affairs prospered with the construction of the chemins de fer de Provence and investments in

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Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. His

hôtel particulier () is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

Parc Monceau Parc Monceau (; English: Monceau Park) is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of the Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers ...

became the rendez-vous for political, financial and artistic Paris. He also bought the château de Nivillers, a village in

Picardy Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...

, of which he became mayor in 1884.

Panama scandal

Fictional depiction

In the 1898 novel ''Paris'',

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

based baron Duvillard on Jacques de Reinach. More recently, Reinach's suicide is a plot point in

Eric Zencey Eric Zencey (1953–July 1, 2019) was an American author. He was a lecturer at the University of Vermont and Washington University in St. Louis. Life and work In 1980, he taught at Goddard College. It was at Goddard where he met and married the ...

's novel ''

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinach, Jacob Adolphe 1840 births 1892 deaths French people of German-Jewish descent French bankers Jewish bankers Businesspeople from Frankfurt 19th-century French businesspeople Emigrants from the German Confederation People from the Free City of Frankfurt Immigrants to France 19th-century Italian nobility