Baron Karl Mayer von Rothschild

1788 - 1855  (67 years)    Has 4 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Karl Mayer von Rothschild
  Prefix	Baron
  Birth	1788
  Gender	Male
  Death	1855
  Siblings	9 Siblings
  + 1. Schönche Jeanette Rothschild,   b. 1771   d. 1859  (Age 88 years) ▻ Benedikt Moses Worms   2. Baron Amschel Rothschild,   b. 1773   d. 1855  (Age 82 years) ▻ Eva Hanau,  m. 1796 + 3. Baron Salomon von Rothschild,   b. 1774   d. 1855  (Age 81 years) ▻ Caroline Stern,  m. 1800 + 4. Baron Nathan von Rothschild,   b. 7 Sep 1777, Frankfurt d. 28 Jul 1836, Frankfurt  (Age 58 years) ▻ Hannah Cohen,  m. 1806   5. Isabella Rothschild,   b. 1781   d. 1861  (Age 80 years) ▻ Bernhard Juda Sichel,  m. 1802 + 6. Babette Rothschild,   b. 1784   d. 1869  (Age 85 years) ▻ Siegmund Leopold Beyfus,  m. 1808 + 7. Baron Karl Mayer von Rothschild,   b. 1788   d. 1855  (Age 67 years) ▻ Adelheid Herz,  m. 1818 + 8. Julie Rothschild,   b. 1790   d. 1813  (Age 23 years) ▻ Meyer Levin Beyfus,  m. 1811 + 9. Henriette Rothschild,   b. 1791   d. 1866  (Age 75 years) ▻ Abraham Montefiore,  m. 1815 + 10. Baron James de Rothschild,   b. 1793   d. 1868  (Age 75 years) ▻ Baroness Betty von Rothschild,  m. 11 Jul 1824
  Person ID	I303161	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	22 Sep 2001

  
  

  Father	Mayer Amschel Rothschild,   b. 23 Feb 1743   d. 19 Sep 1812, Frankfurt (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Gutele Schnapper,   b. 23 Aug 1753   d. 7 May 1849 (Age 95 years)
  Marriage	29 Aug 1770
  Family ID	F121616	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Adelheid Herz,   b. 1800   d. 1853 (Age 53 years)
  Marriage	1818
  Children	+ 1. Charlotte von Rothschild,   b. 1819   d. 1884 (Age 65 years) + 2. Mayer Carl von Rothschild,   b. 1820   d. 1886 (Age 66 years)   3. Baron Adolph Carl von Rothschild,   b. 1823   d. 1900 (Age 77 years) + 4. Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild,   b. 1828   bur. Jan 1901 (Age ~ 73 years)
  Family ID	F121618	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	20 Sep 2001

  
  

• Photos

  Photos (Log in)

  
  

• Notes

  Wound the Italian peninsula around his hand The Austrian Emperor had created him and his brothers barons Carl, the Mezzuzah Baron "Rothschild has just kissed the Pope's hand," wrote a nasty pen in 1832, "and at his departure expressed his satisfaction with the successor of St. Peter in the most gracious terms. . . . others must bend down to the Holy Father's toe, but Rothschild is given the finger." The most interesting feature of the event in question was not the fact that Rothschild kissed something better and more expensive than common mortals could, but that the Rothschild so honored was called Carl---a name hitherto not prominent among the stars of The Family. Carl (known as Kalmann in the early phases of his career) was slow to develop the worldly fluency, the incisiveness and dispatch of Nathan, James or Salomon. Quiet in manner, almost awkward in speech, paunchier even than the Rothschild norm, he clung most strictly to Jewish observance. Before the ceremonial kiss at the Vatican, Carl's Family nickname was "mezzuzah boy"-mezzuzahs being the miniature Torah scrolls affixed to doorways. The faithful Jew kisses them at the start of a journey, and Carl's early life consisted of traveling. He acted as the clan's chief courier. Until March, 1821, he remained without portfolio. Then, when The Family had too many satrapies and not enough satraps, the brothers resorted to him. It all began with the Congress of Laibach, a political festival characteristic of the period, attended by Europe's greatest sovereigns. At Laibach it was decided to restore the absolutist, therefore "legitimate," Bourbon kingdom in Naples. The assembled monarchs authorized the intervention of an Austrian army for that purpose. Naturally the Rothschilds were asked to handle the military subsidies. But which Rothschild? Nathan of London showed little gusto for an antiliberal venture; besides, he was deeply involved in negotiating several million-pound issues. James of Paris happened to be busy propping up the French Bourbons with mountains of francs. Amschel of Frankfurt could not get away from financing postwar reconstruction in German lands. As for Salomon of Vienna, he was up to his neck in his lottery loans, which gave him as much work and publicity as he could handle. "I feel it my duty to avoid anything which could attract attention," he begged off to Metternich. "A journey to Laibach at this time would arouse such attention." Only one brother was left, about whom nobody much knew or cared. Un petit frere Rothschild, the Austrian finance minister called him, though he was actually four years older than James. Did The Family, on delegating him, realize that it was creating the financial overlord of the Italian peninsula? For that is precisely what he became. As soon as the mezzuzah boy was given a challenge of Rothschild proportions, he unleashed a Rothschild performance. At Laibach he quickly worked out the main features of the subsidy: Vienna was to advance a loan to Naples, which would defray with it the costs of the Austrian occupation. Rothschild, in brief, went about its usual task of converting crises into bonds. But this time Carl was to man the controls. He began to lay the groundwork and did a neat extra chore on the side. Before their parting, the King of Naples borrowed a few thousand gulden from the Emperor of Austria. Carl expedited the fancy transaction. No less than his brothers, he was now a banker to monarchs. No less astonishing than his brothers' was his agility. Right after Laibach, a semi-Jacobite uprising broke out in a northern Italian state. Carl flew to his Neapolitan Majesty, who was jittering in Florence. Carl had always been fast for a man of his heavy contours, but now the heat of the job was rapidly thawing a heretofore dull tongue. All eloquence, he predicted that Austrian dragoons would soon trample this sedition underfoot. They did. All firmness, he pushed his uncertain Bourbon southward. He was all strength when he reached Naples. He had to be. An Italian money syndicate claimed it could bring off the military-loan operation at a smaller expense to the kingdom. Carl had prompt recourse to the commanding Austrian general---and emerged as sole floater of the loan. By 1827 Carl's new-founded bank had become a Neapolitan institution that paid the troops that kept the king in power. Carl spoke with a powerful voice to, and for, the local court. Earlier, he had been Austria's monetary arm in Naples. Now he turned into Naples' most important advocate with Vienna. After the royal position had been fortified, it was Carl's argument which moved Metternich to evacuate the kingdom. Inevitably, Carl's counting house became the greatest in the land. He affixed his mezzuzahs to the finest palace on the Vesuvian shore. The native aristocracy repaired here for his lavish entertainments. The Duke of Lucca, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (afterward the first king of Belgium), and every visiting grand seigneur drank and feasted with the newest Rothschild: the Italian one. His money flowed through the treasuries of most Italian states. It helped the Grand Duke of Tuscany drain the Tuscan marshlands. It went to the Kingdom of Sardinia in a series of thirteen state loans amounting to over twenty-two million pounds. And it fertilized the Pope's domains. To be sure, Carl insisted on the official promise that the Vatican's anti-Jewish attitude would be reformed. And even in some contractual documents he could bring himself to speak of the Holy See only as "the Roman State." Nonetheless, his unbaptized ducats were not disdained. On January 10, 1832, the event came to pass with which his story started here. Pope Gregory XVI received Carl von Rothschild, gave him his hand rather than the customary toe to kiss, and pinned the order of St. George on the lapel of the Kosher Baron.