The House of Rothschild

Zusatztext "A stupendous achievement! a triumph of historical research and imagination." Robert Skidelsky! The New York Review of Books "Niall Ferguson's brilliant and altogether enthralling two-volume family saga proves that academic historians can still tell great stories that the rest of us want to read." The New York Times Book Review "Superb ... An impressive ... account of the Rothschilds and their role in history." Boston Globe Informationen zum Autor Niall Ferguson Klappentext The second volume of the history of the Rothschild banking dynasty is "a triumph of historical research and imagination".--Robert Skidelsky, "The New York Review of Books". A "New York Times" Notable Book. 8-page color insert. Charlotte's Dream (1849-1858) I went to sleep at 5 and woke against 6; I had dreamt that a huge vampire was greedily sucking my blood... Apparently, when the result of the vote was declared, a loud, enthusiastic roar of approval resounded ... throughout the House [of Lords]. Surely we do not deserve so much hatred. CHARLOTTE DE ROTHSCHILD, MAY 1849 Though they had managed to weather its storms financially, 1848 might still have proved a fatal turning point for the Rothschildsbut for reasons unrelated to economics and politics. For in the years immediately after the revolution the very structure of the family and the firm was called into question. It is easy to forget as one reads their letters that the four remaining sons of Mayer Amschel were by now old men. Amschel was seventy-seven in 1850, Salomon seventy-six and Carl an ailing sixty-two. Only James was still indefatigable at fifty-six. Longevity, on the other hand, was a family trait: though their father had died aged sixty-eight, their mother, born in 1753, lasted long enough to see the crown of a united Germany offered to a Prussian king by a national assembly gathered in her own home town. Indeed, Gutle Rothschild had become something of a by-word by the 1840s, as The Times reported: The venerable Madame Rothschild, of Frankfort, now fast approaching to her hundredth year, being a little indisposed last week, remonstrated in a friendly way with her physician on the inefficiency of hisprescriptions. "Que voulez-vous Madame?" said he, "unfortunately we cannot make you younger." "You mistake, doctor," replied the witty lady, "I do not ask you to make me younger. It is older I desire to become." Cartoons were published on the subject: one, entitled Grandmother's 99th Birthday , depicted James, with Gutle in the background, telling a group of well-wishers: "When she reaches par, gentlemen, I will donate to the state a little capital of 100,000 gulden" (see illustration 1.i). A different version of the same joke has a doctor assuring her she will "live to be a hundred." "What are you talking about?" snaps Gutle. "If God can get me for 81, He won't take me at a hundred!" Her dogged refusal to quit the old house "zum grünen Schild" in the former Judengasse appealed to contemporaries, suggesting as it did that the Rothschilds' phenomenal economic success was rooted in a kind of Jewish asceticism. Ludwig Börne had sung her praises on this score as early as 1827: "Look, there she lives, in that little house ... and has no wish, despite the world-wide sovereignty exercised by her royal sons, to leave her hereditary little castle in the Jewish quarter." When he visited Frankfurt sixteen years later, Charles Greville was amazed to behold "the old mother of the Rothschilds" emerging from her "same dark and decayed mansion ... not a bit better than any of the others" in the "Jews' street": In this narrow gloomy street, and before this wretched tenement, a smart calèche was stand...

"A stupendous achievement, a triumph of historical research and imagination."—Robert Skidelsky, *The New York Review of Books

"Niall Ferguson's brilliant and altogether enthralling two-volume family saga proves that academic historians can still tell great stories that the rest of us want to read."—The New York Times Book Review

"Superb ... An impressive ... account of the Rothschilds and their role in history."—Boston Globe*

Autorentext

Niall Ferguson

Klappentext

The second volume of the history of the Rothschild banking dynasty is "a triumph of historical research and imagination".--Robert Skidelsky, "The New York Review of Books". A "New York Times" Notable Book. 8-page color insert.

Zusammenfassung
Deals with the history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty. This title also shows the portrait of one of the most powerful and fascinating families of modern times. It shows how their power waned as conflicts from Crimea to the Second World War repeatedly threatened the stability of their worldwide empire, and more.

Leseprobe
*Charlotte's Dream
(1849-1858)
*

• *

I went to sleep at 5 and woke against 6; I had dreamt that a huge vampire was greedily sucking my blood... Apparently, when the result of the vote was declared, a loud, enthusiastic roar of approval resounded ... throughout the House [of Lords]. Surely we do not deserve so much hatred. CHARLOTTE DE ROTHSCHILD, MAY 1849

Though they had managed to weather its storms financially, 1848 might still have proved a fatal turning point for the Rothschilds—but for reasons unrelated to economics and politics. For in the years immediately after the revolution the very structure of the family and the firm was called into question. It is easy to forget as one reads their letters that the four remaining sons of Mayer Amschel were by now old men. Amschel was seventy-seven in 1850, Salomon seventy-six and Carl an ailing sixty-two. Only James was still indefatigable at fifty-six.

    Longevity, on the other hand, was a family trait: though their father had died aged sixty-eight, their mother, born in 1753, lasted long enough to see the crown of a united Germany offered to a Prussian king by a national assembly gathered in her own home town. Indeed, Gutle Rothschild had become something of a by-word by the 1840s, as The Times reported:

The venerable Madame Rothschild, of Frankfort, now fast approaching to her hundredth year, being a little indisposed last week, remonstrated in a friendly way with her physician on the inefficiency of hisprescriptions. "Que voulez-vous Madame?" said he, "unfortunately we cannot make you younger." "You mistake, doctor," replied the witty lady, "I do not ask you to make me younger. It is older I desire to become."

    Cartoons were published on the subject: one, entitled Grandmother's 99th Birthday, depicted James, with Gutle in the background, telling a group of well-wishers: "When she reaches par, gentlemen, I will donate to the state a little capital of 100,000 gulden" (see illustration 1.i). A different version of the same joke has a doctor assuring her she will "live to be a hundred." "What are you talking about?" snaps Gutle. "If God can get me for 81, He won't take me at a hundred!"

    Her dogged refusal to quit the old house "zum grünen Schild" in the former Judengasse appealed to contemporaries, suggesting as it did that the Rothschilds' phenomenal economic success was rooted in a kind of Jewish asceticism. Ludwig Börne had sung her praises on this score as early as 1827: "Look, there she lives, in that little house ... and has no wish, despite the world-wide sovereignty exercised by her royal sons, to leave her hereditary little castle in the Jewish quarter." When he visited Frankfurt sixteen years later, Charles Greville was amazed to behold "the old mother of the Rothschilds" emerging from her "same dark and decayed mansion ... not a bit better than any of the others" in the "Jews' street":

In this narrow gloomy street, and before this wretched tenement, a smart calèche was standing, fitted with …