Ludwig von Stieglitz (Любим Иванович Штиглиц; December 24, 1779 in

Arolsen Bad Arolsen (, until 1997 Arolsen, ''Bad'' being the German name for ''Spa'') is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany, in Waldeck-Frankenberg district. From 1655 until 1918 it served as the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont and t ...

, Waldeck,

Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unti ...

; ,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a

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

businessman in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and founder of the banking house Stieglitz & Company. He was the youngest of three sons of the Waldeck court banker Hirsch Bernhard Stieglitz and his wife Edel Elisabeth (née Marcus). As a young man Stieglitz moved to Russia as a representative of his merchant house, and eventually, after converting to Christianity, was appointed court banker to

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of ...

, gaining influence and receiving various Russian decorations. After adopting Christianity, he was raised to the dignity of a Russian hereditary baron on August 22, 1826. Stieglitz continued as court banker to Nicholas I and took an active part in many financial affairs of his adopted country, investing in a range of enterprises including steam navigation between

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

and St. Petersburg. He purchased the Estate of Gross-Essern in

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...

, and on May 3, 1840 his name was inscribed in the register of the nobility of Courland. A contemporary has noted: "He was the German

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

of St. Petersburg, but in reality more; for he was not only rich in money, he was still richer in heart, and a noble benefactor in the best sense of the word."Memoirs of Karoline Bauer – Translation from German, Published 1885 by Remington&Co, page 114

Personal life

Ludwig von Stieglitz married Amalie Angelika Christiane Gottschalk (July 26, 1777,

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

– February 20, 1838, St. Petersburg); their descendants were confirmed in the dignity of hereditary barons by the Senate on April 3, 1862: * Son

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

was his successor as head of the bank (until the firm went into voluntary liquidation in 1863) and became head of the

State Bank of the Russian Empire The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (russian: Банк России}), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can ...

established in 1860. * Daughter Nathalie (October 17, 1805, St. Petersburg – May 17, 1882, Frankfurt). She married in 1824 Johann David von Harder (1797–1871), Consul General of the Netherlands.

References

External links

Article by H.Rosenthal & H.Guttenstein in Jewish Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stieglitz, Ludwig von 1779 births 1843 deaths People from Bad Arolsen 18th-century German Jews People from Waldeck (state) Bankers from the Russian Empire Businesspeople from Saint Petersburg Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Judaism Jewish bankers