S M von Rothschild was a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

ing enterprise established in 1820 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

Salomon Mayer Rothschild Salomon Mayer von Rothschild (9 September 1774 – 28 July 1855) was a German-born banker in the Austrian Empire and the founder of the Austrian branch of the prominent Mayer Amschel Rothschild family. Family He was born at Frankfurt am Mai ...

, the founder of the

Rothschild banking family of Austria The Rothschild banking family of Austria ( de-AT, Rothschild Bankiersfamilie) was founded by banker Salomon Mayer von Rothschild in 1820 in Vienna in what was then the Austrian Empire. History Salomon Mayer had been sent to Austria from his ho ...

and a member of the

Mayer Amschel Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Fran ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The business prospered, financing various Austrian government undertakings where large amounts of capital had to be raised. The bank played a major role in the building of the country's economic infrastructure including the first

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

networks. Passed down to Salomon Mayer Rothschild's male heirs, the bank would be run by Anselm von Rothschild (President: 1848–1874),

Albert Salomon von Rothschild Albert Salomon Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild (29 October 1844 – 11 February 1911) was a banker in Austria-Hungary and a member of the Rothschild banking family of Austria. Businesses that he owned included Creditanstalt and the Norther ...

(President: 1874–1911), and

Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild Louis Nathaniel, Baron de Rothschild (german: Ludwig Nathaniel, Freiherr von Rothschild) was an Austrian baron from the famous Rothschild family. He was born in Vienna on 5 March 1882 and died of heart failure while swimming in Montego Bay, Jam ...

(President: 1911–1939). The 13 March 1938

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

of Austria to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

marked the forced end of the Rothschild's business in Austria. Because he was

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish, Baron Louis von Rothschild, head of the bank at the time, was held in prison for a year and only released after a substantial ransom was paid by his family. After Baron Louis was stripped of his Austrian citizenship and allowed to leave the country empty-handed, in March 1939 the Nazis placed the firm of S M von Rothschild under compulsory administration and then sold it to the German private bank Merck, Finck & Co. in October of that year, and S.M.v Rothschild became E.v. Nicolai & Co. After the Allies occupied Austria, Louis Rothschild asserted a claim to recover ''Südosttextil Gesellschaft m.b.H.'', a company that had been founded by E.v. Nicolai & Co. on January 29, 1942.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:S M Von Rothschild Banks of Austria Jewish Austrian history ! Companies acquired from Jews under Nazi rule

See also

References