Founder of the House of Rothschild Had
Vainly Attempted to Reconcile Himself
to Being a Rabbi.
Mayer Amschel Bauer, founder of the house of Rothschild, was born in the
Ghetto of Frankfort, Germany. This section was set off for the Jews with
barriers, and at night these barriers were closed and no one was permitted
to leave the street. His father was a merchant in poor circumstances, and
it was the dream of his life to make the son a rabbi. So he sent him to
study with the rabbis learned in the law of Moses. The studies continued a
few weeks, and then young Bauer rebelled. He would go no more. His father
entreated and threatened. It was useless, for the boy took the few gulden
he possessed and set up as a money-lender.
There, on the sidewalk of the squalid Judengasse, or street of the Jews,
began the power of the richest and most famous banking family in the
world.
The business under the sign with the red shield prospered so that the
owner dropped his own name and adopted that of his emblem, Rothschild.
Around him there were men equally prosperous. Mayer Amschel Rothschild was
not only a lender and changer of money, but he was also a student of
coins. The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was also an enthusiastic student of
numismatics, so when he heard of the collector in the Judengasse he made
his acquaintance. This acquaintance enabled Rothschild to step out from
among his fellows and begin operations on a larger and different scale. He
became a negotiator of national loans, and his success brought him into
prominence with the nations fighting against Napoleon.
Napoleon invaded Hesse-Cassel, and the Landgrave fled, after entrusting
Rothschild with his money and treasures. At the risk of being shot
Rothschild buried the treasure in his own garden, and it remained there
until Napoleon swept on and the Landgrave returned to his home. Then
Rothschild restored the property, adding five per cent interest on the
money.
The first Rothschild remained to the end of his life in the old house in
the narrow Ghetto. Even when he had monarchs in his grip, when he was
parceling out Europe for the financial operations of his sons, he
continued there, and, when he died, his wife, the mother of all the
Rothschilds, remained there, and in the forties of the last century, when
the old woman was approaching her ninetieth year, it was one of the sights
of Frankfort to see her carriage, resplendent in crimson velvet and
decorated with monograms, drive through the street and stop before the
dilapidated house that was her home.