Samuel Oppenheimer
Samuel Oppenheimer | |
|---|---|
 Samuel Wolf Oppenheimer byJosef Kriehuber | |
| Born | 21 June 1630 |
| Died | 3 May 1703(aged 72) |
| Occupation | Court Jew |
| Parents |
|
Samuel Oppenheimer(21 June 1630 – 3 May 1703) was anAshkenazi Jewishbanker, imperial court diplomat,factor,and military supplier for theHoly Roman Emperor.He enjoyed the special favor of EmperorLeopold I,to whom he advanced considerable sums of money for theGreat Turkish War.Prince Eugene of Savoybrought him a large number of valuable Hebrew manuscripts from Turkey, which became the nucleus of the famousDavid OppenheimLibrary, now part of theBodleian Libraryat Oxford.
Although theJewshad been recently expelled from Vienna in 1670, the emperor permitted Oppenheimer to settle there, together with his "Gesinde",his followers, who included a number of Jewish families. He even received the privilege of building a mansion in the heart of Vienna. He was appointed"Oberfaktor"andcourt Jewat the recommendation of MargraveLudwigofBaden,the imperial general in Hungary, to whom he had advanced 100,000guldenfor war expenses. He also enabled Prince Eugene to provide medical attendance for the army during the Turkish war. About the year 1700, a riot broke out, possibly sanctioned by the royal court, to persuade Oppenheimer to relieve the court's debt.[1]During the riot, houses were sacked and property looted, including Oppenheimer's. As a result, one man was hanged for sacking Oppenheimer's house and others were imprisoned for participating in the disturbance.
Oppenheimer took steps to suppress theanti-SemiticEntdecktes Judenthum(Judaism Unmasked) treatise by spending large sums of money to win the court and the Jesuits to the side of the Jews. As a result, an imperial edict was issued forbidding circulation of the author,Eisenmenger's, work. Oppenheimer was employed also by the emperor in political missions which were often of a delicate nature.
When Oppenheimer died, the state refused to honor its debts to his heir Emanuel and had his firm declared bankrupt. His death brought deep financial crisis to the state; it experienced great difficulty in securing the credit necessary to meet its needs. Emanuel appealed to European rulers to whom the state owed money and who intervened on his behalf. After deliberate procrastination, the state refused Emanuel's demand for 6 million florins and instead demanded 4 million florins from him. This amount was based on a sum which (with compound interest), according to the state, Oppenheimer had allegedly obtained by fraud at the beginning of his career. Emanuel died in 1721 and the Oppenheimer estate was auctioned in 1763. Although Oppenheimer was not himself learned, he was a benefactor on a scale hitherto unknown, building many synagogues and yeshivot and supporting their scholars. He also paid ransom for the return of Jews captured during the Turkish wars and supported as well R. Judah he-Hasid's voyage to Erez Israel in 1700. Known as Judenkaiser by his contemporaries, he was a man whose complex personality, a mixture of pride and reserve, defied historical analysis. Twenty years after his death it was estimated that more than 100 persons held residence in Vienna by virtue of their being included in Oppenheimer's privileges.[2]
Oppenheimer was buried in theRossauer Cemetery,the oldest Jewish cemetery in Vienna (Seegasse 9). Stones in the cemetery were buried during WWII for protection. Many were recovered and the cemetery was restored in the 1980s. One half of Samuel Oppenheimer's tombstone as well as the lower part of the second half were recovered during excavations in the cemetery in 2008 and was restored to its original location,[3]as were the tombstones of several of his descendants. A photograph taken before the war reveals the elaborate inscriptions on his tombstone.
One of Oppenheimer's sons,Simon Wolf Oppenheimer,established a banking house inHanover.Simon Wolff's son,Jakob Wolf Oppenheimercontinued the family banking house. It was there, from 1757 to 1763, thatMayer Amschel Rothschildapprenticed and learned the banking business that would become synonymous with thatfamily name.Oppenheimer's descendants include the composerFelix Mendelssohn.
References
[edit]- ^Johnson, Paul(1996).A History of the Jews.London: Phoenix. pp. 256–258.ISBN1-85799-380-2.
- ^Encyclopedia Judaica.1950. p. 1431.
- ^"Archivmeldung: Versteckt, aber viel Geschichte: Der Jüdische Friedhof in der Rossau".8 January 2014.
Sources
[edit]- Singer, Isidoreand Kisch, Alexander.Oppenheimer, Samuel.JewishEncyclopedia.
- Bibliographies of Jewish Encyclopedia:
- L. A. Frankl,Wiener Epitaphien,p. xiv.;
- Heinrich Grätz,Gesch.x. 308, 347, 428, 431;
- Johann Jakob Schudt,Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten,i. 351, 428;
- Joseph Ritter von Wertheimer,Die Juden in Oesterreich vom Standpunkte der Geschichte,p. 133;
- Gerson Wolf,Geschichte der Juden in Wien,1876;
- Constant von Wurzbach,Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreichs.v.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
