![Berlin, Mitte, Nikolaiviertel, Palais Ephraim](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Berlin%2C_Mitte%2C_Nikolaiviertel%2C_Palais_Ephraim.jpg)
Veitel Heine Ephraim, 1703 – 16 May 1775 in Berlin) was jeweller to the
Prussian Court
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
, a silk entrepreneur in Potsdam, the chairman of the Jewish congregation in Berlin/Prussia, and since 1756
Mintmaster in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
and from 1758 also in Prussia. During the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754†...
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
devalued the Prussian coin five times in order to finance the war;
debased coins were produced with the help from Ephraim and
Daniel Itzig
Daniel Itzig (also known as Daniel Yoffe 18 March 1723 in Berlin – 17 May 1799 in Potsdam) was a Court Jew of Kings Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick II the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia, Frederick William II of Kingdom of Prussia, ...
, and spread outside Prussia: in Saxony,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, and
Kurland. Ephraim and his companion Itzig became infamous for adding
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
, up to 70%, so as to
debase
A debasement of coinage is the practice of lowering the intrinsic value of coins, especially when used in connection with commodity money, such as gold or silver coins. A coin is said to be debased if the quantity of gold, silver, copper or nick ...
the coins, which becaime known as
Ephraimiten
An Ephraimite (German Ephraimit, plural Ephraimiten) was a debased coin part of whose silver content was replaced with copper. Ephraimites, as they came to be called, were issued under the authority of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Duchy ...
.
Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann
Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann (13 July 1724 – 16 February 1782) was a German-born merchant, banker, nobleman, planter and politician. During the Seven Years' War, he speculated heavily on currency debasement in close association with his bu ...
,
Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky
Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (21 November 1710 – 9 August 1775) was a Prussian merchant with a successful trade in trinkets, silk, taft, porcelain, grain and bills of exchange
A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a ...
and
Leendert Pieter de Neufville
Leendert Pieter de Neufville (Amsterdam, March 8, 1729Rotterdam, July 28, 1811) was a Dutch merchant and banker trading in silk, linen, and grain. His business grew quickly during the Seven Years' War. De Neufville secretly supplied the Prussian ...
also cooperated in the debasement policy.The king's coinage policy became a key element of war financing.
Life
![Spandauer Straße Berlin (1690)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Spandauer_Stra%C3%9Fe_Berlin_%281690%29.JPG)
Veitel Ephraim was the fifth child of Altona-born jeweller, and elder of the Jewish Community Nathan Veitel Ephraim (1658-1748), who moved from Hamburg to Berlin. His mother came from Vienna. The Ephraim family lived in Spandauer Straße 30. Around 1744/1745 Ephraim became court jeweller of
Friedrich II Frederick II, Frederik II or Friedrich II may refer to:
* Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250), King of Sicily from 1198; Holy Roman Emperor from 1220
* Frederick II of Denmark (1534–1588), king of Denmark and Norway 1559–1588
* Frede ...
. They had known each other since 1738, when they met at
Schloss Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg Palace (german: Schloss Rheinsberg) lies in the municipality of Rheinsberg, about northwest of Berlin in the German district of Ostprignitz-Ruppin.
The palace on the eastern shore of the is a classic example of the so-called Frederic ...
. Already as Crown Prince Friedrich was in debt to Ephraim. In 1748 Ephraim leased a factory in Potsdam for lace and had orphans taught in the production of it. In 1750 he was appointed by the King as the senior elder of the Berlin Jewry. In 1752/1754 Ephraim delivered silver to
Johann Philipp Graumann
Johann Philipp Graumann (born in 1706 - died 22 April 1762 in Berlin) was a German business mathematician, an expert on exchange rates and coinage, mint master in Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and Berlin, a mercantilist, and Prussian financial adv ...
, director of the Prussian mints.
Mint activities
![Leipzig Pleißenburg um 1780](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Leipzig_Plei%C3%9Fenburg_um_1780.jpg)
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0213-303, Berlin, Nikolaiviertel,](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1990-0213-303%2C_Berlin%2C_Nikolaiviertel%2C_%22Ephraimpalais%22%2C_Fernsehturm.jpg)
After Graumann's fall in early 1755, Veitel Ephraim and his brother-in-law Moses Fränkel leased the
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
er mint. Their success was so great that under similar conditions they were given the lease of the mint of
Cleves
Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...
, where one of Ephraim's sons took charge on 16 August. In October 1755 he leased the mint facility in
Aurich
Aurich (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Auerk'', West Frisian: ''Auwerk'', stq, Aurk) is a town in the East Frisian region of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Aurich and is the second largest City in East Frisia, both i ...
. At some time Friedrich II. ordered that the old and new
Louis d'or
The Louis d'or () is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was re ...
had to be changed (stamped) into
Friedrich d'or
The Friedrich d'or was a Prussian gold coin (pistole) nominally worth 5 silver Prussian thalers. It was subsequently copied by other North German states under their own rulers' names (''August-, Friedrich-August-, Christian d'or'') and valued at 4. ...
in Aurich. The coins could be used by the
Prussian East India Company in Asia where they were worth 20% more. On 21 November 1756 Ephraim offered the king a premium of 20% for leasing the
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
mint facility. In Poland, Russia, and Hungary rogue traders traded the debased coins for the true coins circulating there, and sold them back to the mint.
They used their extensive business and relational foreign relations to acquire the necessary gold and silver in Holland, especially on the Amsterdam market, in England, and in Hamburg by means of Hamburg and Dutch exchange. Another way to raise money was to remelt gold subsidies received from England and to double and triple them by mixing them with other metals.
The revenue from the impact of the coin transactions from 1759 to 1762 exceeded 29 million
Thaler
A thaler (; also taler, from german: Taler) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter of ...
and thus, for example, the amount of British subsidies. On 28 January 1764, Frederick the Great ordered Itzig and Ephraim that they invest the great assets they had earned in the Prussian economy. Ephraim left a fortune when he died; he is buried at the Jüdischer Friedhof (Berlin-Mitte).
Personal life
In 1727 Ephraim married to Elke Fraenkel. They had four sons: Ephraim (1729-1803),
Website of the Ephraim Veitel Foundation Joseph (1731-1786), Zacharias (1736-1779) and Benjamin (1742-1811) and two daughters: Edel (1728-1750) and Rosel (1738-1803), who married Heimann Fraenkel (1748-1824). Ephraim's great-granddaughter was Sara Grotthuis
Sara Grotthuis, born Sara Meyer, also known as Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine Baroness von Grotthuis and as Sara Wulff by her first marriage (1763 – 11 December 1828), was one of the most well-known "salonnières" (salon hostesses and patrons of t ...
, a noted literary salon hostess in Berlin around 1800.
References
Sources
* Karl E. Groezinger (Ed.): ''Die Stiftungen der preußisch-jüdischen Hofjuweliersfamilie Ephraim und ihre Spuren in der Gegenwart.'' (= ''Jüdische Kultur.'' Vol. 19). Harrassowitz (publisher), Wiesbaden 2009.
Studies in the Economic Policy of Frederick the Great by W.O. Henderson, p. 40
*''Forgotten Fragments of the History of an Old Jewish Family'' by Louis and Henry Fraenkel. Kopenhagen 1975.
* Stern, S. (1950) ''The Court Jew; a contribution to the history of the period of absolutism in Central Europe''. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1950
Full text online at archive.org
External links
The Making of Western Jewry, 1600-1819 by L. Kochan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ephraim, Veitel-Heine
18th-century German Jews
1703 births
1775 deaths