Moritz von Bethmann
Encyclopedia
Philipp Heinrich Moritz Alexander von Bethmann (from 1854: 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...

 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 (1768-1826) and Louise Friederike née Boode was only 15 years old when his father died. In 1833 he became the head of the Gebrüder Bethmann bank. Von Bethmann focused especially on railway construction. Together with 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...

, he established three railroad companies in succession: Taunus-Eisenbahn AG in 1836, Frankfurt-Hanauer Eisenbahn in 1844, and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn. In the 1850s he also invested in (among others) the Italian central railroad company, the Austrian state-controlled railroad company, and the Rhein-Nahe-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft.

From 1854 until the loss of Frankfurt's status as a Free 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 1866, von Bethmann was the Prussian consul general in Frankfurt. In 1854 he was elevated to the status of a 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...

 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 1863 he hosted the assembly of German princes in his garden house. Like his father before him, he generously contributed to philanthropic causes and to the arts in Frankfurt.

Von Bethmann, who had to cope with a lifelong handicap due to a hip impediment, was married to Maria née Freiin
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...

 von Bose
(1819–1882), with whom he had two sons and three daughters, among them Ludwig Simon Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann, who was named after his grandfather Simon Moritz and who would later take the reins as the head of 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...

.
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