Bethmann family
Encyclopedia
The Bethmann family has been remarkable for the high proportion of its males who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank
which Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793) and Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782) founded in 1748 and soon catapulted into the foremost ranks of German and European banks. Even after the bank's sale in 1976, there are von Bethmanns engaged in commercial real estate and forestry in the 21st century.
The most notable of the Bethmanns was Simon Moritz von Bethmann (1768–1826): banker, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. His sister Maria Elisabeth was the mother of Marie d'Agoult and the grandmother of Cosima Wagner; his sister Susanne Elisabeth, the great-grandmother of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.
, resided in Frankfurt am Main from the early 18th century onward. Earlier ancestors had come from the northern German town of Goslar
. There – as burghers but not feudal nobility – the Bethmanns were among the upper crust of urban families. As such, they were entitled to delegate representatives to the town council and to bear a coat of arms; the earliest mention of the Bethmann name in Hanseatic
Goslar – in the registrum parochianorum, a compendium on wax tablets of the town's parishioners – dates back to a Heinrich Bethmann in 1416. The surname "Bethmann" likely was an occupational name, like "Bäcker"/"Baker", given to collectors of the bede penninc, a tax requested (erbeten) from freemen in the Middle Ages.
Subsequently other Bethmanns – a Tile, a Bartold, a Hans and an Albrecht – appear in the records of Goslar, as owners of houses on Stonestrate and Korngasse, and as witnesses in the sale of houses. Another Tile buys a house on Knochenhauerstraße in 1492, serves on the town council, and is mentioned ten times between 1503 and 1520 as Munteherr, the title of an official responsible for minting of specie
and weighing the metals produced from mining.
In 1512 Henning Bethmann, the great-great-grandfather of Konrad Bethmann
, is accepted into the merchants' guild. In 1515 he is appointed Tafelherr, i.e., the councillor responsible for the town finances; this is followed by appointments to the posts of Munteherr in 1528, Kistenherr in 1538, and in 1548 supervisor of the vitriol works that extract copper vitriol from ore. A Bartoldt Bethmann sold a house on Piepmäkerstraße in 1548 and another on Glockengießerstraße in 1566.
Henning's grandson Hieronymus is recorded in 1590 as a member of the merchants' guild; four years later he marries Ilsebey Drönewolf in St. Stephan's church. Hieronymus served as chairman of the merchants' guild, as Kornherr responsible for grain stocks, town councillor, member of the Sechsmann inner council and finally of the Neuer or governing council. Hieronymus died as the Swedes were entering Goslar. The town never fully recovered from the ransacking and pillaging of the Thirty Years' War, especially the three years of Swedish occupation.
Some of the 19th century literature incorrectly claimed that the family had originated in the Netherlands. The family assigned its archives in 1965 to the city of Frankfurt. The Bethmanns' archival materials occupy some 300 meters of shelf space, and the oldest document therein is a calligraphed agreement dated 29 May 1321, regulating traffic on the street between the Basler Hof property, which the Bethmanns purchased in 1762, and a neighboring house.
(sometimes spelled "Conrad") (1652–1701) was born in Goslar as the seventh child of the merchant Andreas Bethmann, four years after the Peace of Westphalia
ended the Thirty Years' War
. Much of Germany then was a patchwork of small to medium-sized jurisdictions. While this factor impeded development towards a nation-state, it ensured plentiful job opportunities for ambitious bureaucrats and entrepreneurs.
Konrad left his hometown for an apprenticeship in Eisleben
. He served as Münzwardein
in Dömitz
(Mecklenburg), then was appointed in 1683 Münzmeister
to the Princess of Nassau-Holzappel in Cramberg
on the Lahn
river, followed by his appointment in 1687 as Münzmeister with the German Order of Knights in Friedberg
, and in 1692 as Münzmeister for the Archbishopric and Electorate of Mainz
in Aschaffenburg
.
He bequeathed a substantial fortune on Anna Elisabeth (1654–1727), whom he had married in 1678. Anna Elisabeth Bethmann was a native of the northern German town of Minden
, where the church of St. Simeon, Protestant since 1529, and the Catholic monastery St. Mauritius stand side by side to this day. This may explain why in subsequent generations, there was always one son named Simon Moritz.
As a Protestant
, the widowed Anna Elisabeth and her children left behind the Archbishopric for Lutheran Frankfurt am Main; there she found it easier to comply with her religious obligations and benefited from the presence of relatives. Three of her daughters married citizens of Frankfurt. Her son Simon Moritz Bethmann (1687–1725) served the House of Nassau-Weilburg as an Amtmann
, i.e., official administrator, in Bergnassau on the river Lahn
.
This Simon Moritz had three sons:
. Johann Jakob
– the middle brother – established a trading branch in Bordeaux
. Later he became the imperial
consul in Bordeaux and founded the Bordeaux
branch of the family, which continues to this day.
Within a short span of time, the Bethmann bank developed into one of Frankfurt's leading (Christian-owned) banks, on a scale comparable only to its younger rival, the House of Rothschild
. The bank's fortunes began to rise in 1754 based on its business in imperial
, princely
and municipal bonds
and skyrocketed from 1778, thanks to the bank's innovation of breaking the amount borrowed by the Austrian emperor down into "sub-bonds" (Partialobligationen) at 1000 guldens
each offered to the public, which made them tradeable in secondary markets. This transformed the bank from a lender to an underwriter of bond issues. At one point, the profits of Gebrüder Bethmann exceeded those of all its Frankfurt competitors together, and it ranked first among all German banks.
Simon Moritz, a major donor to Frankfurt's Citizens' Hospital, died without issue, but the 1762 marriage between his elder brother Johann Philipp and Katharina Margarethe Schaaf (1741–1822), daughter of the Frankfurt notable Anton Schaaf, produced six children, four of whom survived to adulthood:
in 1217. Not long after, an upper crust of burgher families began to constitute itself. To them were reserved seats on the town council, which were passed on by inheritance to the sons of the council members. This clique of generally wealthy families was called Patrizier, after the patricii ruling families in ancient Rome. Some of the Patrizier families, like the Holzhausens, had an unbroken run of 16 generations on the town council from the 13th to the 18th century. As the daughter of a Kaiserlicher Rat
and Schöffe
, Katharina Margarete Schaaf gained her husband Johann Philipp access to Patrizier society; she was on familiar terms with the mother of Goethe and, even after she was widowed, maintained a respected salon
where she received Madame de Staël in 1808.
By 1816, when Frankfurt's new constitution abolished the privilege of heritable office for the Patrizier, the cachet of belonging to one of their societies had already become much less significant.
. His peers called him "Frankfurt's premier citizen", while in France some called him le roi de Francfort. His financial dealings gained him entrance to nearly all the ruling families of Europe, and he exploited these contacts on numerous diplomatic missions on behalf of his hometown. In 1802 he negotiated successfully with France for a reduction of her demand for contributions to the cost of war. In the negotiations on the German mediatisation
, he bargained for and achieved the secularization of ecclesiastical assets within the territory of Frankfurt for the benefit of the imperial city
. In 1802 he was appointed Russian consul for Frankfurt, followed by his appointment in 1807 as Russian Consul General and Staatsrat
or Russian Counselor of State. In 1808 he received the patent of an Austrian nobleman out of the hands of Francis I the Emperor of Austria. Thenceforth, he and his descendants would be named von Bethmann. However, to the people of Frankfurt his "Russian" title of Staatsrat stuck, and so even after he returned that commission to tsar Alexander I
he was simply known as the Staatsrat. On 31 October 1813
the retreating Emperor Napoleon spent the night as an unannounced guest at the Bethmanns' garden house. Bethmann's negotiating skills managed to persuade the French to withdraw their army without further bloodshed from Frankfurt.
Besides promoting commerce, Simon Moritz von Bethmann was an ardent supporter of the arts and sciences in the city of Frankfurt. In 1812 Bethmann inaugurated a museum of antique and classicist sculpture within a stretch of land that he had turned into a park six years earlier. (Both the building and the park were sold to the city in 1856). His donations made it possible to establish the city library on the northern bank of the river Main between 1820 and 1825.
He was a major donor and co-founder of secondary schools (Musterschule in 1803, Philanthropin in 1804, Weißfrauenschule in 1806); his efforts on behalf of the Philanthropin were particularly noteworthy, for in supporting this Jewish school and promoting its cause among his Christian brethren, Simon Moritz was ahead of his time. In 1687 when Anna Elisabeth Bethmann named a son Simon Moritz, it may have been that she wanted to show her support for ecumenicism or it may simply have been that she fondly remembered the twin landmarks of her hometown. For her great-grandson—the third Simon Moritz—there was nothing accidental about what he set out to do: support the Jews in their struggle for civil rights.
In this respect, Simon Moritz was not unique. A generation earlier, Enlightenment figures like Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
had begun militating for Jewish emancipation. Unusually, however, at the same time that Simon Moritz was helping the Jews of Frankfurt to secure greater freedoms for themselves, he was carrying on a fierce business rivalry with the Rothschilds in which no quarter was ever given.
On Christmas Day 1826 he suffered a stroke in a box seat of Frankfurt's municipal theater, an institution which he had co-endowed, and succumbed two days afterward. Bethmann was buried in the cemetery of the Church of Peter in Frankfurt, where his grave is preserved to this day.
Simon Moritz von Bethmann had married Louise Friederike née Boode (1792–1869), daughter of a respected Dutch family, granddaughter of a Huguenot named Martin and a native of British Guiana
, in 1810. The Louisa park off a major carriage route in the southwest part of Frankfurt is named after Louise von Bethmann.
Four sons issued from this marriage:
Because Bethmann's sons had not yet achieved the age of majority upon their father's death, the bank's partners stepped in as pro tem directors of the bank. In 1828 his widow remarried to Matthias Franz Joseph Borgnis (1798–1867).
In 1833 Moritz von Bethmann
succeeded to the directorship of the bank. He financed the construction of numerous railways in Germany and made especially sure that Frankfurt turned into an early node of rail traffic. Together with the House of Rothschild, Moritz started the Taunus-Eisenbahn AG in 1836, the Frankfurt-Hanau railroad in 1844, and the Rheingau railroad in 1845, to name just a selection. Investments were made during the 1850s in other European railroads – such as the Italian Central Railroad, the Austrian state railroad, and the Rhine/Nahe railroad established in 1856. In 1842 he became a Prussian consul, then Prussian Consul General in the Free City of Frankfurt
from 1854 to 1866. He was granted the heritable title of Freiherr
, a rank of minor nobility, in the Grand Duchy of Baden
in 1854. Also in 1854 he co-founded the Frankfurter Bank, in 1862 the Frankfurter Hypothekenbank, and in 1873 the Degussa company.
In 1863 he hosted the German princes convening to discuss constitutional reform in his garden mansion. Following in the footsteps of his father, he too was a generous patron of the arts in Frankfurt and contributed heavily to philanthropic causes, arts and letters, and organized equestrian activities. On 18 September 1848, he gave refuge to mortally wounded Prince Felix Lichnowsky
who had been attacked by a mob ostensibly outraged over foreign policy decisions. He was married to Marie von Bose.
Moritz' brother Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann purchased the castle of Fechenbach
in 1842, earning him the title of a Bavarian Freiherr. His oldest son Karl Moritz "Charly" von Bethmann proved a spendthrift and got himself in hock to a loan shark charging 6 per cent interest a week. Karl Moritz was hoping for a rescue from the House of Bethmann
but Moritz von Bethmann
was unfazed: he said that total ruination was the best cure for his profligate nephew Charly.
The last male descendant of this line, Karl Alexander Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann died in 1942. Fechenbach castle was sold to a private buyer named Wissler but confiscated by the Nazis a year later. Following the end of WWII and after a decade as an orphanage the property was restituted to the Wissler family who completed its construction in 2006.
Ludwig Simon Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann (1844–1902), the eldest son of Moritz von Bethmann
and Marie von Bose, married Baroness Helene von Wendland. Trained in London, he joined Gebrüder Bethmann as partner in 1869. He gained broad experience in several industries serving as non-executive director on the boards of rail and banking companies. This Simon Moritz kept up the railroad business but also got the bank involved in municipal bonds and industrial investments worldwide. A passionate huntsman and athlete, he became a wheelchair user following a riding accident in 1879. He gave generously to local and charitable causes, sponsoring the Golden Book of Frankfurt am Main in 1902. Of their three children only Simon Moritz survived. After serving as First Lieutenant in World War I, he set out to transform the Bethmann bank into a full-service bank.
Simon Moritz Henning August Freiherr von Bethmann (1887–1966): Following studies of the law in Lausanne and Leipzig, he joined Gebrüder Bethmann as partner in 1913. In 1914 he married Maximiliane Countess Schimmelpenninck, a grand-daughter of Dr. Eugen Lucius, a founder of Hoechst AG
, thus adding the landed estate of Gut Schönstadt near Marburg
to the Bethmann holdings. He joined the board of the stock exchange
and became its president in 1933.
This Simon Moritz contributed his time to numerous cultural institutions of Frankfurt, such as the administration of the Städel museum
, as well as non-profit foundations. He co-founded the first Rotary Club in Frankfurt and accepted an appointment as Swedish Consul General. In 1929 he served as chairman of the supervisory board of Frankfurter Bank. When World War II ended, he was a lieutenant colonel (reserve).
Bethmann bank
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG is a private bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It's a subsidiary of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO and was created in 2004 from a merger of the banks Bankhaus Delbrück & Co and Bethmann-Maffei...
which Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793) and Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782) founded in 1748 and soon catapulted into the foremost ranks of German and European banks. Even after the bank's sale in 1976, there are von Bethmanns engaged in commercial real estate and forestry in the 21st century.
The most notable of the Bethmanns was Simon Moritz von Bethmann (1768–1826): banker, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. His sister Maria Elisabeth was the mother of Marie d'Agoult and the grandmother of Cosima Wagner; his sister Susanne Elisabeth, the great-grandmother of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.
Beginnings in Goslar
The Bethmann family, which produced the famous Bethmann banking dynastyBethmann bank
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG is a private bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It's a subsidiary of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO and was created in 2004 from a merger of the banks Bankhaus Delbrück & Co and Bethmann-Maffei...
, resided in Frankfurt am Main from the early 18th century onward. Earlier ancestors had come from the northern German town of Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
. There – as burghers but not feudal nobility – the Bethmanns were among the upper crust of urban families. As such, they were entitled to delegate representatives to the town council and to bear a coat of arms; the earliest mention of the Bethmann name in Hanseatic
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
Goslar – in the registrum parochianorum, a compendium on wax tablets of the town's parishioners – dates back to a Heinrich Bethmann in 1416. The surname "Bethmann" likely was an occupational name, like "Bäcker"/"Baker", given to collectors of the bede penninc, a tax requested (erbeten) from freemen in the Middle Ages.
Subsequently other Bethmanns – a Tile, a Bartold, a Hans and an Albrecht – appear in the records of Goslar, as owners of houses on Stonestrate and Korngasse, and as witnesses in the sale of houses. Another Tile buys a house on Knochenhauerstraße in 1492, serves on the town council, and is mentioned ten times between 1503 and 1520 as Munteherr, the title of an official responsible for minting of specie
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
and weighing the metals produced from mining.
In 1512 Henning Bethmann, the great-great-grandfather of Konrad Bethmann
Konrad Bethmann
Konrad Bethmann or Conrad Bethmann was a German administrator and entrepreneur serving secular and ecclesiastical authorities.-Life:...
, is accepted into the merchants' guild. In 1515 he is appointed Tafelherr, i.e., the councillor responsible for the town finances; this is followed by appointments to the posts of Munteherr in 1528, Kistenherr in 1538, and in 1548 supervisor of the vitriol works that extract copper vitriol from ore. A Bartoldt Bethmann sold a house on Piepmäkerstraße in 1548 and another on Glockengießerstraße in 1566.
Henning's grandson Hieronymus is recorded in 1590 as a member of the merchants' guild; four years later he marries Ilsebey Drönewolf in St. Stephan's church. Hieronymus served as chairman of the merchants' guild, as Kornherr responsible for grain stocks, town councillor, member of the Sechsmann inner council and finally of the Neuer or governing council. Hieronymus died as the Swedes were entering Goslar. The town never fully recovered from the ransacking and pillaging of the Thirty Years' War, especially the three years of Swedish occupation.
Some of the 19th century literature incorrectly claimed that the family had originated in the Netherlands. The family assigned its archives in 1965 to the city of Frankfurt. The Bethmanns' archival materials occupy some 300 meters of shelf space, and the oldest document therein is a calligraphed agreement dated 29 May 1321, regulating traffic on the street between the Basler Hof property, which the Bethmanns purchased in 1762, and a neighboring house.
Blazonry
The Bethmann coat of arms can be traced to 1530. On the right-hand side of a split shield, half an eagle in black is displayed against a golden background, while the left-hand side displays two diagonal red bars against a silver background. At a later date, the motto tuebor (Latin for "I shall protect") was added.To Nassau and Aschaffenburg
Konrad BethmannKonrad Bethmann
Konrad Bethmann or Conrad Bethmann was a German administrator and entrepreneur serving secular and ecclesiastical authorities.-Life:...
(sometimes spelled "Conrad") (1652–1701) was born in Goslar as the seventh child of the merchant Andreas Bethmann, four years after the Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
ended the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
. Much of Germany then was a patchwork of small to medium-sized jurisdictions. While this factor impeded development towards a nation-state, it ensured plentiful job opportunities for ambitious bureaucrats and entrepreneurs.
Konrad left his hometown for an apprenticeship in Eisleben
Eisleben
Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as the hometown of Martin Luther, hence its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. As of 2005, Eisleben had a population of 24,552...
. He served as Münzwardein
Münzwardein
In medieval and Renaissance Germany, the Münzwardein was the title of an official whose duties included supervising the Münzmeister and the stock of precious metals used in minting...
in Dömitz
Dömitz
Dömitz is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, 25 km southwest of Ludwigslust, and 37 km northwest of Wittenberge....
(Mecklenburg), then was appointed in 1683 Münzmeister
Münzmeister
In medieval and early modern Germany, the Münzmeister was the director or administrator of a mint, a moneyer with responsibility for the minting of coins, or specie. His duties were defined differently at different locations and ages.-Middle ages:The need for currency was relatively low during...
to the Princess of Nassau-Holzappel in Cramberg
Cramberg
Cramberg is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....
on the Lahn
Lahn
The Lahn River is a -long, right tributary of the Rhine River in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse , and Rhineland-Palatinate ....
river, followed by his appointment in 1687 as Münzmeister with the German Order of Knights in Friedberg
Friedberg, Hesse
Friedberg is a town and the capital of the Wetteraukreis district, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 26 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main.-Division of the town:The town consists of 7 districts:* Bruchenbrücken...
, and in 1692 as Münzmeister for the Archbishopric and Electorate of Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
in Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg is a city in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat.Aschaffenburg is known as the Tor zum Spessart or "gate to the Spessart"...
.
He bequeathed a substantial fortune on Anna Elisabeth (1654–1727), whom he had married in 1678. Anna Elisabeth Bethmann was a native of the northern German town of Minden
Minden
Minden is a town of about 83,000 inhabitants in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town extends along both sides of the river Weser. It is the capital of the Kreis of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detmold. Minden is the historic political centre of the...
, where the church of St. Simeon, Protestant since 1529, and the Catholic monastery St. Mauritius stand side by side to this day. This may explain why in subsequent generations, there was always one son named Simon Moritz.
As a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, the widowed Anna Elisabeth and her children left behind the Archbishopric for Lutheran Frankfurt am Main; there she found it easier to comply with her religious obligations and benefited from the presence of relatives. Three of her daughters married citizens of Frankfurt. Her son Simon Moritz Bethmann (1687–1725) served the House of Nassau-Weilburg as an Amtmann
Amtmann
Amtmann can be :*a feudal, administrative and/or gubernatorial title, such as Bezirksamtmann . Amtmann, ammann and amman were a kind of bailiff in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in Brussels....
, i.e., official administrator, in Bergnassau on the river Lahn
Lahn
The Lahn River is a -long, right tributary of the Rhine River in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse , and Rhineland-Palatinate ....
.
This Simon Moritz had three sons:
- Johann Philipp (1715–1793),
- Johann JakobJohann Jakob BethmannthumbJohann Jakob Bethmann was a German merchant and shipowner.- Life :...
(1717–1792) and - Simon Moritz (1721–1782)
Founding of the bank
Upon the death of Simon Moritz in 1725, his widow Elisabeth Bethmann née Thielen (1680–1757) returned to Frankfurt, where she became a housekeeper in the household of her brother-in-law, the merchant Jakob Adami (1670–1745). In his will, he bequeathed on his nephews one-half of his fortune. Johann Philipp and Simon Moritz took control of the trading enterprise Jacob Adami, out of which arose in 1748 the banking enterprise of Gebrüder Bethmann, which eventually became the House of BethmannBethmann bank
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG is a private bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It's a subsidiary of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO and was created in 2004 from a merger of the banks Bankhaus Delbrück & Co and Bethmann-Maffei...
. Johann Jakob
Johann Jakob Bethmann
thumbJohann Jakob Bethmann was a German merchant and shipowner.- Life :...
– the middle brother – established a trading branch in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. Later he became the imperial
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
consul in Bordeaux and founded the Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
branch of the family, which continues to this day.
Within a short span of time, the Bethmann bank developed into one of Frankfurt's leading (Christian-owned) banks, on a scale comparable only to its younger rival, the House of Rothschild
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
. The bank's fortunes began to rise in 1754 based on its business in imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, princely
Fürst
Fürst is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz...
and municipal bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
and skyrocketed from 1778, thanks to the bank's innovation of breaking the amount borrowed by the Austrian emperor down into "sub-bonds" (Partialobligationen) at 1000 guldens
South German gulden
The Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern....
each offered to the public, which made them tradeable in secondary markets. This transformed the bank from a lender to an underwriter of bond issues. At one point, the profits of Gebrüder Bethmann exceeded those of all its Frankfurt competitors together, and it ranked first among all German banks.
Simon Moritz, a major donor to Frankfurt's Citizens' Hospital, died without issue, but the 1762 marriage between his elder brother Johann Philipp and Katharina Margarethe Schaaf (1741–1822), daughter of the Frankfurt notable Anton Schaaf, produced six children, four of whom survived to adulthood:
- Susanne Elisabeth (1763–1833) was married in 1780 to the Frankfurt merchant Johann Jakob Hollweg (1748–1808), who changed his name to Bethmann-Hollweg upon marriage. Her son Moritz AugustAugust von Bethmann-HollwegMoritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg was a German jurist and Prussian politician.- Life :...
would become a Prussian minister of state, and his grandson in turn was Theobald von Bethmann-HollwegTheobald von Bethmann-HollwegTheobald von Bethmann Hollweg was a German politician and statesman who served as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917.-Origins:...
, who served as Imperial German Chancellor from 1909 to 1917. - Simon Moritz (1768–1826) was among the most notable of Frankfurt's bankers, statesmen and philanthropists.
- Maria Elisabeth (1772–1847) was married in 1790 to the banker Johann Jakob Bußmann (1756–1791). Widowed only a year later, she remarried, this time to émigré French aristocrat Alexandre Victor Francois Vicomte de Flavigny (1770–1819). Her daughter from the second marriage was Marie d'AgoultMarie d'AgoultMarie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, Vicomtesse de Flavigny , was a French author, known also by her married name and title, Marie, Comtesse d'Agoult, and by her pen name, Daniel Stern....
(1805–1876), who in turn gave birth to several children, among them—from her liaison to Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
–- Cosima WagnerCosima WagnerCosima Francesca Gaetana Wagner, née de Flavigny, from 1844 known as Cosima Liszt; was the daughter of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt...
(1837–1930). - Sophie Elisabeth (1774–1862).
First families of Frankfurt
In Frankfurt, the beginnings of an independent polity date back to the grant of privileges to its citizens by then king Friedrich IIFrederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
in 1217. Not long after, an upper crust of burgher families began to constitute itself. To them were reserved seats on the town council, which were passed on by inheritance to the sons of the council members. This clique of generally wealthy families was called Patrizier, after the patricii ruling families in ancient Rome. Some of the Patrizier families, like the Holzhausens, had an unbroken run of 16 generations on the town council from the 13th to the 18th century. As the daughter of a Kaiserlicher Rat
Geheimrat
Geheimrat was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or principal courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the Geheimer Rat reporting to the ruler...
and Schöffe
Schepen
A schepen is a Dutch word referring to a municipal civic office in Dutch-speaking countries. The term is still in use in Belgium, but it has been replaced by wethouder in the Netherlands. The closest English terms are alderman, member of the municipal executive, councillor and magistrate,...
, Katharina Margarete Schaaf gained her husband Johann Philipp access to Patrizier society; she was on familiar terms with the mother of Goethe and, even after she was widowed, maintained a respected salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
where she received Madame de Staël in 1808.
By 1816, when Frankfurt's new constitution abolished the privilege of heritable office for the Patrizier, the cachet of belonging to one of their societies had already become much less significant.
A man in full – pragmatic and enlightened
Upon the death of Johann Philipp Bethmann in 1793 his son Simon Moritz became head of the House of BethmannBethmann bank
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG is a private bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It's a subsidiary of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO and was created in 2004 from a merger of the banks Bankhaus Delbrück & Co and Bethmann-Maffei...
. His peers called him "Frankfurt's premier citizen", while in France some called him le roi de Francfort. His financial dealings gained him entrance to nearly all the ruling families of Europe, and he exploited these contacts on numerous diplomatic missions on behalf of his hometown. In 1802 he negotiated successfully with France for a reduction of her demand for contributions to the cost of war. In the negotiations on the German mediatisation
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
, he bargained for and achieved the secularization of ecclesiastical assets within the territory of Frankfurt for the benefit of the imperial city
Free City of Frankfurt
For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt am Main was a city-state within two major Germanic states:*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt...
. In 1802 he was appointed Russian consul for Frankfurt, followed by his appointment in 1807 as Russian Consul General and Staatsrat
State Council of Imperial Russia
The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.-18th century:Early Tsars' Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....
or Russian Counselor of State. In 1808 he received the patent of an Austrian nobleman out of the hands of Francis I the Emperor of Austria. Thenceforth, he and his descendants would be named von Bethmann. However, to the people of Frankfurt his "Russian" title of Staatsrat stuck, and so even after he returned that commission to tsar Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
he was simply known as the Staatsrat. On 31 October 1813
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
the retreating Emperor Napoleon spent the night as an unannounced guest at the Bethmanns' garden house. Bethmann's negotiating skills managed to persuade the French to withdraw their army without further bloodshed from Frankfurt.
Besides promoting commerce, Simon Moritz von Bethmann was an ardent supporter of the arts and sciences in the city of Frankfurt. In 1812 Bethmann inaugurated a museum of antique and classicist sculpture within a stretch of land that he had turned into a park six years earlier. (Both the building and the park were sold to the city in 1856). His donations made it possible to establish the city library on the northern bank of the river Main between 1820 and 1825.
He was a major donor and co-founder of secondary schools (Musterschule in 1803, Philanthropin in 1804, Weißfrauenschule in 1806); his efforts on behalf of the Philanthropin were particularly noteworthy, for in supporting this Jewish school and promoting its cause among his Christian brethren, Simon Moritz was ahead of his time. In 1687 when Anna Elisabeth Bethmann named a son Simon Moritz, it may have been that she wanted to show her support for ecumenicism or it may simply have been that she fondly remembered the twin landmarks of her hometown. For her great-grandson—the third Simon Moritz—there was nothing accidental about what he set out to do: support the Jews in their struggle for civil rights.
In this respect, Simon Moritz was not unique. A generation earlier, Enlightenment figures like Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
had begun militating for Jewish emancipation. Unusually, however, at the same time that Simon Moritz was helping the Jews of Frankfurt to secure greater freedoms for themselves, he was carrying on a fierce business rivalry with the Rothschilds in which no quarter was ever given.
On Christmas Day 1826 he suffered a stroke in a box seat of Frankfurt's municipal theater, an institution which he had co-endowed, and succumbed two days afterward. Bethmann was buried in the cemetery of the Church of Peter in Frankfurt, where his grave is preserved to this day.
Simon Moritz von Bethmann had married Louise Friederike née Boode (1792–1869), daughter of a respected Dutch family, granddaughter of a Huguenot named Martin and a native of British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
, in 1810. The Louisa park off a major carriage route in the southwest part of Frankfurt is named after Louise von Bethmann.
Four sons issued from this marriage:
- Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von BethmannMoritz von Bethmannthumb|right|Moritz von Bethmann as seen by a caricaturist.Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann , born 8 October 1811 in Frankfurt am Main, died 2 December 1877 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German banker.-Life:The oldest son of Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Louise Friederike née...
(1811–1877) - Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann (1812–1871)
- Alexander von Bethmann (1814–1883)
- Jacob Heinrich Friedrich von Bethmann (d. 1845 without issue)
Because Bethmann's sons had not yet achieved the age of majority upon their father's death, the bank's partners stepped in as pro tem directors of the bank. In 1828 his widow remarried to Matthias Franz Joseph Borgnis (1798–1867).
Magnates of industrial revolution
Moritz von Bethmann
thumb|right|Moritz von Bethmann as seen by a caricaturist.Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann , born 8 October 1811 in Frankfurt am Main, died 2 December 1877 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German banker.-Life:The oldest son of Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Louise Friederike née...
succeeded to the directorship of the bank. He financed the construction of numerous railways in Germany and made especially sure that Frankfurt turned into an early node of rail traffic. Together with the House of Rothschild, Moritz started the Taunus-Eisenbahn AG in 1836, the Frankfurt-Hanau railroad in 1844, and the Rheingau railroad in 1845, to name just a selection. Investments were made during the 1850s in other European railroads – such as the Italian Central Railroad, the Austrian state railroad, and the Rhine/Nahe railroad established in 1856. In 1842 he became a Prussian consul, then Prussian Consul General in the Free City of Frankfurt
Free City of Frankfurt
For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt am Main was a city-state within two major Germanic states:*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt...
from 1854 to 1866. He was granted the heritable title of Freiherr
Freiherr
The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...
, a rank of minor nobility, in the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
in 1854. Also in 1854 he co-founded the Frankfurter Bank, in 1862 the Frankfurter Hypothekenbank, and in 1873 the Degussa company.
In 1863 he hosted the German princes convening to discuss constitutional reform in his garden mansion. Following in the footsteps of his father, he too was a generous patron of the arts in Frankfurt and contributed heavily to philanthropic causes, arts and letters, and organized equestrian activities. On 18 September 1848, he gave refuge to mortally wounded Prince Felix Lichnowsky
Prince Lichnowsky
Lichnowsky -Freiherr und Edler Herr von Woschutz :* Franz Bernhard Lichnowsky, Freiherr und Elder Herr von Woschutz 1664-1747)* Franz Bernhard Lichnowsky, Graf Lichnowsky ...
who had been attacked by a mob ostensibly outraged over foreign policy decisions. He was married to Marie von Bose.
Moritz' brother Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann purchased the castle of Fechenbach
Collenberg
Collenberg is a community in the Miltenberg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :Collenberg lies on the Main, 13 km away from Miltenberg and 18 km from Wertheim...
in 1842, earning him the title of a Bavarian Freiherr. His oldest son Karl Moritz "Charly" von Bethmann proved a spendthrift and got himself in hock to a loan shark charging 6 per cent interest a week. Karl Moritz was hoping for a rescue from the House of Bethmann
Bethmann bank
Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG is a private bank headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It's a subsidiary of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO and was created in 2004 from a merger of the banks Bankhaus Delbrück & Co and Bethmann-Maffei...
but Moritz von Bethmann
Moritz von Bethmann
thumb|right|Moritz von Bethmann as seen by a caricaturist.Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann , born 8 October 1811 in Frankfurt am Main, died 2 December 1877 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German banker.-Life:The oldest son of Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Louise Friederike née...
was unfazed: he said that total ruination was the best cure for his profligate nephew Charly.
The last male descendant of this line, Karl Alexander Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann died in 1942. Fechenbach castle was sold to a private buyer named Wissler but confiscated by the Nazis a year later. Following the end of WWII and after a decade as an orphanage the property was restituted to the Wissler family who completed its construction in 2006.
Ludwig Simon Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann (1844–1902), the eldest son of Moritz von Bethmann
Moritz von Bethmann
thumb|right|Moritz von Bethmann as seen by a caricaturist.Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann , born 8 October 1811 in Frankfurt am Main, died 2 December 1877 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German banker.-Life:The oldest son of Simon Moritz von Bethmann and Louise Friederike née...
and Marie von Bose, married Baroness Helene von Wendland. Trained in London, he joined Gebrüder Bethmann as partner in 1869. He gained broad experience in several industries serving as non-executive director on the boards of rail and banking companies. This Simon Moritz kept up the railroad business but also got the bank involved in municipal bonds and industrial investments worldwide. A passionate huntsman and athlete, he became a wheelchair user following a riding accident in 1879. He gave generously to local and charitable causes, sponsoring the Golden Book of Frankfurt am Main in 1902. Of their three children only Simon Moritz survived. After serving as First Lieutenant in World War I, he set out to transform the Bethmann bank into a full-service bank.
Simon Moritz Henning August Freiherr von Bethmann (1887–1966): Following studies of the law in Lausanne and Leipzig, he joined Gebrüder Bethmann as partner in 1913. In 1914 he married Maximiliane Countess Schimmelpenninck, a grand-daughter of Dr. Eugen Lucius, a founder of Hoechst AG
Hoechst AG
Hoechst AG was a German chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999...
, thus adding the landed estate of Gut Schönstadt near Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
to the Bethmann holdings. He joined the board of the stock exchange
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and the clearing company...
and became its president in 1933.
This Simon Moritz contributed his time to numerous cultural institutions of Frankfurt, such as the administration of the Städel museum
Städel
The Städel, officially the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, is an art museum in Frankfurt am Main, with one of the most important collections in Germany....
, as well as non-profit foundations. He co-founded the first Rotary Club in Frankfurt and accepted an appointment as Swedish Consul General. In 1929 he served as chairman of the supervisory board of Frankfurter Bank. When World War II ended, he was a lieutenant colonel (reserve).