There are few people on the globe who have not heard of the Rothschilds. Today this surname has become a symbol of wealth. Where did these same Rothschilds come from?
Descendants of the Jewish money changer
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who was born in 1744 in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), is considered the ancestor of the dynasty of famous Jewish bankers Rothschild. His father, money changer and jeweler Amschel Moses Bauer, was a trading partner of the House of Hesse. The emblem of his jewelry workshop depicted a golden Roman eagle on a red shield, so the workshop was called "Red Shield" (German - Rothschield). Mayer Amschel took this name as his surname.
The first Rothschild went into the banking business and succeeded in it. Paul Johnson writes in The History of the Jews that he managed to create a new type of international company that survived a series of Jewish pogroms, wars and revolutions.
Mayer Amschel's five sons - Amschel Mayer, Solomon Mayer, Nathan Mayer, Kalman Mayer and James Mayer - founded banks in the five largest cities in Europe: Paris, London, Vienna, Naples and Frankfurt am Main.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Nathan Mayer Rothschild financed the transport of gold bars for the Duke of Wellington's army, and also subsidized Britain's continental allies. In 1816, the Austrian Emperor Franz II granted the Rothschilds the title of baron. The family now has its own coat of arms, which depicts five arrows, symbolizing the five offspring of Amschel Mayer, by analogy with the text of the 126th biblical psalm: "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are young sons." The family motto is inscribed in Latin below: Concordia, Integritas, Industria ("Concord, Honesty, Diligence"). The British Rothschilds were adopted at the court of Queen Victoria.
The Rothschilds tried to keep the fortune within the family. They entered into marriages only by calculation, and until the end of the 19th century they entered into marriage alliances between distant relatives. Subsequently, they began to marry representatives of influential financial families in Europe, mainly of Jewish origin: Warburgs, Goldsmiths, Coens, Raphael, Sassoon, Salomon.
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Rothschilds walk the world
The Rothschild family made a significant contribution to the industrialization of Europe. It facilitated the construction of the railway network in France, Belgium and Austria and the Suez Canal, funded the founding of the De Beers concern, the Rio Tinto mining company. During the Russo-Japanese War, the London consortium issued Japanese war bonds in the amount of 11.5 million (at 1907 prices).
By the early twentieth century, the Rothschild surname had become synonymous with wealth. The Rothschilds owned more than 40 family palaces, superior in luxury to the royal castles of Europe, and extensive collections of works of art. Among other things, the Rothschilds were actively involved in charity work.
At the beginning of World War II, the Rothschilds were forced to emigrate to the United States as the persecution of the Jews began. All their property was confiscated and plundered by the Nazis. In 1999, the Austrian government returned a number of palaces to the family, as well as 250 pieces of art that ended up in a state museum.
Secret rulers of the world?
Since 2003, the Rothschild investment banks have been under the control of the Swiss-registered Rothschild Continuation Holdings, headed by Baron David Rene de Rothschild. The family owns numerous vineyards, it owns property not only in Europe, but also in North and South America, South Africa and Australia.
At the end of 2010, Baron Benjamin Rothschild issued a statement that the Rothschild clan did not suffer from
the global financial crisis thanks to conservative business practices. “We got through this because our investment executives didn't want to invest in crazy things. The client knows that we will not speculate with his money,”the banker said.
The Rothschilds are believed to be the richest people in the world. In 2012, their combined fortune was estimated at $ 1.7 trillion (according to other estimates, more than 3.2 trillion).
Conspiracy theorists periodically show interest in the Rothschilds. For example, supporters of conspiracy theories argue that representatives of this clan belong to the secret society of the Illuminati and control all the finances of the world, and are also the organizers of military conflicts between various powers.