Élie de Rothschild

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Baron Élie de Rothschild (29 May 1917 – 6 August 2007) was a French banker, a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family. He followed his father as a partner in the family bank, de Rothschild Frères, and ran the Château Lafite-Rothschild premier cru claret vineyard from 1946 to 1974.

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[edit] Lineage

Élie de Rothschild was the younger son of Baron Robert Philippe de Rothschild and Nelly Beer. His father was a partner in de Rothschild Frères with his cousin, Baron Edouard Alphonse de Rothschild. His mother was the daughter of Edmond Beer, a great-great-niece of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, and elder sister of Marie-Louise Beer, who married Lionel Nathan de Rothschild from the English branch of the Rothschild family. Élie and his siblings (Diane, Alain and Cécile) were brought up at Château de Laversine, near Chantilly, and at the family mansion at 23 avenue de Marigny near the Elysée Palace in Paris.

[edit] World War II service

He and his brother served as officers in a cavalry regiment - the Anciens 11èmes Cuirassiers - when Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940. Both were captured by the Germans close to the Belgian border during World War II. Élie was taken to a prisoner of war camp at Nienberg near Hamburg. After being discovered planning to escape, he was taken to Colditz Castle, then to Lübeck, one of the toughest POW camps. There, he was reunited with his brother. As persons of Jewish descent, both were fortunate in being treated as captured officers, thus avoiding the extermination camps.

While in Colditz, Élie had written to his childhood sweetheart Liliane Fould-Springer (a future grandaunt of Helena Bonham Carter) and asked her to marry him, which they did by proxy by 1942. Her mother thought her foolish to take on the Rothschild name with the Nazis in control of France.

[edit] Post-war life

After the war, Élie, Alain and their wives shared the family mansion at avenue de Marigny, which had been used as the Luftwaffe headquarters during the war. Élie and his family moved to 11 rue Masseran in the 1950s, where he displayed his great collection of art, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Dubuffet and Picasso.

Élie and his brother assisted their cousin, Guy de Rothschild, to rebuild the de Rothschild Frères investment bank, and its Compagnie du chemins de fer du Nord subsidiary. Élie took charge of Château Lafite-Rothschild, the premier cru Pauillac vineyard in the Médoc, in 1946, which he owned jointly with Alain, Guy and their English cousin Jimmy de Rothschild. Élie became president of the family's Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) in 1956, diversifying into hotels, motels and restaurants.

Élie was a friend of Prince Aly Khan and Gianni Agnelli. In 1954, when Liliane was out of town, Élie was introduced to divorcee Pamela Churchill (later Pamela Harriman). According to Élie, "She was sweet, charming and pretty. I wanted to go to bed with her and I did." Nevertheless, Liliane quickly saw off her rival.

His nephew Eric de Rothschild, son of Alain, took over at Château Lafite-Rothschild in 1974.

[edit] Death

Élie died of a heart attack when on vacation at his hunting lodge near the village of Scharnitz outside Innsbruck in Austria. His wife predeceased him in 2003. He was survived by a son, Nathaniel, and two daughters, Elisabeth and Nelly.

He was also survived by an illegitimate daughter, who has taken the family name, although not acknowledged publicly by her father or his relatives.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ David Patrick Columbia. New York Social Diary: Remembering A Rothschild. Retrieved 28 February 2008. "She is Ondine, born in 1979 when he was in his early 60s, from his long and very well known liaison with the beautiful Paris antiquaire Ariane Dandois." Ondine graduated from Princeton in the Class of 2001. Her birth "was known to the international media who reported on his death, and never mentioned it. Presumably such an omission is carried out in the name of tradition or “the family” or whatever it was that his generation and those that came before him paid lip service too."

[edit] Sources

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