Salomon Oppenheim Jr. (19 June 1772 – 8 November 1828) was a

German Jewish 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 ...

banker, and the founder of the

Sal. Oppenheim Sal. Oppenheim was a German private banking, private bank founded in 1789 and headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It provided asset management solutions for wealthy individual clients and institutional investors. In 2009, the bank became a subsidia ...

private bank. He was born in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, the scion of an illustrious family of "

Court Jew In early modern Europe, particularly in Germany, a court Jew (, ) or court factor (, ) was a Jewish banker who handled the finances of, or lent money to, royalty and nobility. In return for their services, court Jews gained social privileges, inc ...

s" () who had served as advisers and moneylenders to the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

area for several generations. In 1789, at the age of 17, he set up a small commissions and exchange house in Bonn, then the residence of Prince-Archbishop Maximilian Francis of Austria. He made the acquaintance of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

during his life and they became lifelong friends. Nine years later, after

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

troops had occupied the left banks of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

, Oppenheim moved to the city of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. He was one of the first Jews who settled in Cologne since the expulsion of the Jewish community in 1424. Oppenheim became banker and tax collector by order of the French occupying power. After the establishment of the

Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg The Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg () was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1822. Jülich-Cleves-Berg was established in 1815 from part restored and part newly annexed lands by the Kingdom of Prussia from France's Grand Duchy of Berg. Jülich- ...

in 1815, he took service with the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

state. In January 1822, he received the title of "Senior Court Agent in our Most Gracious Confidence". Oppenheim and his wife Therese (Stein, born Deigen Levi) had 12 children. After Salomon's death, two of his sons, and

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

, took over management of the bank. Another son, co-published the

Rheinische Zeitung The ''Rheinische Zeitung'' (" Rhenish Newspaper") was a 19th-century German newspaper, edited most famously by Karl Marx. The paper was launched in January 1842 and terminated by Prussian state censorship in March 1843. The paper was eventually s ...

and was a railway industrialist. Salomon and Therese's daughter Bertha "Betty" Hertz née Oppenheim married Heinrich David Hertz (born as Hertz Hertz)—their son

Gustav Ferdinand Hertz Gustav Ferdinand Hertz (born August 2, 1827, as David Gustav Hertz in Hamburg, died September 8, 1914) was a German lawyer and senator of the Free Imperial City of Hamburg. He was the father of the pioneering physicist Heinrich Hertz Heinric ...

(born as David Gustav Hertz) with his wife Anna Elisabeth née Pfefferkorn later became parents of

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. Biography Heinric ...

and Gustav Theodor Hertz, who in turn later became the father of Gustav Ludwig Hertz. The main branches of the family converted to

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

(Betty Oppenheim and Heinrich David Hertz, and Simon Oppenheim's son

Eduard Eduard Model Accessories is a Czech manufacturer of plastic models and finescale model accessories. History Formed in 1989 in the city of Most, Eduard began in a rented cellar as a manufacturer of photoetched brass model components. Follo ...

) and

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(Abraham's son ) in the late 19th century. The company he founded, Sal. Oppenheim, is now a subsidiary of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

. Participation of the Oppenheim family effectively ended in 2005 with the death of

Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim Alfred Paul Ernst Freiherr von Oppenheim (May 5, 1934 – January 5, 2005), known in America as Alfred Oppenheim, was a German billionaire and banker. Born in Cologne, Germany, Oppenheim was a descendant of Salomon Oppenheim, Jr., who founded the ...

. It moved its headquarters to

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

in 2007 and was acquired by

in 2009/10.

Literature

References

1772 births 1828 deaths German bankers German company founders 19th-century German businesspeople 18th-century German Jews Businesspeople from Mainz Jewish German bankers Oppenheim family (Cologne) {{Germany-business-bio-stub

Literature

See also

References