Salomon Oppenheim
Encyclopedia
History of the Jews in Germany
The presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...
banker, the founder of the Sal. Oppenheim
Sal. Oppenheim
Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. AG & Co. KGaA is a European Private Bank, currently headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It manages and administers €138 billion of assets and employs around 3,800 employees in more than 30 sites in Germany and Europe...
company.
He was born in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, the scion of an illustrious family of "Court Jew
Court Jew
Court Jew is a term, typically applied to the Early Modern period, for historical Jewish bankers who handled the finances of, or lent money to, European royalty and nobility....
s" who had served as advisers and moneylenders to the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
area for several generations. In 1789, at the age of 17, Oppenheim set up a small commissions and exchange house in Bonn, then the residence of Prince-Archbishop Maximilian Francis of Austria
Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria
Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria was an Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, the last child of the Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. His siblings included two Holy Roman Emperors , as well as Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Queen Maria Carolina of...
.
Nine years later, after French
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
troops had occupied the left banks of the Rhine, Oppenheim moved to the city of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. He was one of the first Jews who settled here after the expulsion of the Jewish community in 1424. Oppenheim became banker and tax collector by order of the French occupying power. After the establishment of the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg
The Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815–22. The province was largely made up of the land held by the former United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
in 1815, he took service with the Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
state.
Oppenheim and his wife Therese had 12 children. After Salomon's death, two of his sons, Simon and Abraham, took over management of the bank. The main branches of the family converted to Protestantism
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...
(Simon's son Eduard) and Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
(Abraham's son Albert) in the late 19th century.
As Sal. Oppenheim
Sal. Oppenheim
Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. AG & Co. KGaA is a European Private Bank, currently headquartered in Cologne, Germany. It manages and administers €138 billion of assets and employs around 3,800 employees in more than 30 sites in Germany and Europe...
, the bank is still in business today. Participation of the Oppenheim family effectively ended in 2005 with the death of Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim
Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim
Alfred Paul Ernst Freiherr von Oppenheim known in America as Alfred Oppenheim was a German billionaire and banker....
. It moved its headquarters to Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
in 2007 and was acquired by Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
in 2009/10.