Samuel Oppenheimer

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Samuel Oppenheimer (born June 21, 1630, Heidelberg - May 3, 1703, Vienna) was a banker, imperial court factor, diplomat, and military supplier for the Holy Roman Emperor. He enjoyed special favor of Emperor Leopold I, to whom he advanced considerable sums of money for the Great Turkish War. Prince Eugene of Savoy brought him a large number of valuable Hebrew manuscripts from Turkey, which became the nucleus of the famous David Oppenheimer Library, now comprised in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Although the Jews had been recently expelled from Vienna in 1670, the emperor permitted Oppenheimer to settle there, together with his "Gesinde", his followers, who included a number of Jewish families. He even received the privilege of building a mansion in the heart of Vienna. He was appointed "Oberfaktor" and court Jew at the recommendation of Margrave Ludwig of Baden, the imperial general in Hungary, to whom he had advanced 100,000 gulden for war expenses. He also enabled Prince Eugene to provide medical attendance for the army during the Turkish war. About the year 1700, a riot broke out and houses were sacked and property looted. As a result, one man was hanged for sacking Oppenheimer's house and others were imprisoned for participating in the disturbance.

During the Eisenmenger controversy, Oppenheimer took steps to suppress the former's "Entdecktes Judenthum", spending large sums of money to win the court and the Jesuits to the side of the Jews. As a result, an imperial edict was issued forbidding the circulation of Eisenmenger's work. Oppenheimer was employed also by the emperor in political missions which were often of a delicate nature.

[edit] References

Bibliography: L. A. Frankl, Wiener Epitaphien, p. xiv.;
Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. x. 308, 347, 428, 431;
Johann Jakob Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, i. 351, 428;
Joseph Ritter von Wertheimer, Die Juden in Oesterreich vom Standpunkte der Geschichte, p. 133;
Gerson Wolf, Geschichte der Juden in Wien, 1876;
Constant von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich s.v.