Théodore Reinach (3 July 186028 October 1928) was a French
archaeologist,
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
,
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solici ...
,
papyrologist
Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...
,
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...
,
epigrapher
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
,
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
,
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...
,
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...
, and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
.
Academic career
Educated at the
Lycée Condorcet
The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...
,
Ecole des Hautes Etudes,
Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Reinach had a brilliant career as a scholar and was called to the
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
ian bar where he practised from 1881 to 1886 but eventually devoted himself to the study of
numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
.
He became Chair in ancient
numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...
and was a director of various journals. In 1916, he was awarded the
medal of the Royal Numismatic Society The Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society was first awarded in 1883. It is awarded by the Royal Numismatic Society and is one of the highest markers of recognition given to numismatists. The President and Council award the Medal annually to an "in ...
and in 1917, during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, he worked on assignment in the United States.
He wrote important works on the ancient kingdoms of
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
: (1888), (1890); (Paris), and also a critical edition and translation with
Henri Weil
Henri Weil (August 27, 1818 – November 5, 1909) was a French philologist.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Frankfurt, he was educated at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig. He went to France, and continued his studies at Pa ...
of
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ...
's ''Treatise on Music''; and an (2nd ed., 1901).
From 1888 to 1897 Théodore Reinach edited the ''.''
He received an
honorary
An honorary position is one given as an honor, with no duties attached, and without payment. Other uses include:
* Honorary Academy Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, United States
* Honorary Aryan, a status in Nazi Germany ...
Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.) from the
University of Dublin
The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...
in June 1902.
Théodore Reinach was president of the French association of musicologists
Société française de musicologie in 1928.
Family and Villa Kerylos
In 1886, Reinach married Charlotte Marie Evelyne Hirsch. They had two daughters but she died at age twenty-six in 1889. Reinach married a second time in 1891 to Fanny Kann, a daughter of Maximilien Kann and Betty
Ephrussi. They made their home in a chateau at
La Motte-Servolex
La Motte-Servolex (; frp, La Mota-Cèrvolê) is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is part of the urban area of Chambéry.Savoie
Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...
department in southeastern France. As a resident there, Reinach was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies of France
Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house o ...
as a member of the
Bloc des gauches
The Lefts Bloc (french: Bloc des gauches, ) was a coalition of Republican political forces created during the French Third Republic in 1899 to contest the 1902 legislative elections. It initially supported Emile Combes's cabinet (June 1902-Ja ...
, serving from 1906 to 1914.
The Reinachs spent time on the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation "Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from ...
and in 1902 hired the architect
Emmanuel Pontremoli to design a villa at
Beaulieu-sur-Mer
Beaulieu-sur-Mer (; oc, Bèuluec de Mar; it, Belluogo; "Beautiful Place on the Sea"), commonly referred to simply as Beaulieu, is a seaside commune on the French Riviera between Nice and the Principality of Monaco. Located in the Alpes-Mari ...
. Completed in 1908 the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
-style property was named
Villa Kerylos.
Fanny Reinach died in 1917 and Theodore in 1928. He was a member of the
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...
and on his death he bequeathed the Villa Kerylos to the Institut.
Reinach's son, Léon (1893–1943), became the keeper of the archives at Villa Kerylos. Léon Reinach was married to
Béatrice de Camondo with whom he had two children. Following the
German occupation of France during World War II
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied ...
, the Villa was seized by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
s and Léon and Béatrice Reinach and their two children were sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp where they were
murdered.
After the War, other of the Reinach children and grandchildren continued to live there until 1967. Today, the Villa Kerylos is a museum open to the public.
Fanny Reinach's mother was a member of the
Ephrussi family
The Ephrussi family () is a Ukrainian Jewish banking and oil dynasty. The family's bank and properties were seized by the Nazi authorities after the 1938 " Anschluss", the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.
History
The progenitor, Char ...
whose cousin
Maurice was married to
Béatrice de Rothschild. Inspired by the beauty of the Reinach's Villa Grecque Kérylos and the area, nearby they built
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also called Villa Île-de-France, is a French seaside villa located at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera. Designed by the French architect Aaron Messiah, it was built between 1907 and 1912 by Baroness B ...
.
References
Sources
Théodore Reinach at the Jewish Encyclopedia.com
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinach, Theodore
1860 births
1928 deaths
People from Saint-Germain-en-Laye
French people of German-Jewish descent
Jewish French politicians
Politicians from Île-de-France
Independent Radical politicians
Members of the 9th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 10th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
19th-century French lawyers
19th-century French mathematicians
French archaeologists
19th-century French historians
20th-century French historians
19th-century French musicologists
20th-century French musicologists
French philologists
French male non-fiction writers
Ephrussi family
Lycée Condorcet alumni
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Presidents of the Société française de musicologie
19th-century musicologists
Papyrologists