Mendelssohn family

The Mendelssohn family are the descendants of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and include his grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn.

Moses Mendelssohn was a significant figure in the Age of Enlightenment in Germany. Mendelssohn had ten children, of whom six lived to adulthood. Of those six children, only Recha and Joseph retained the Jewish faith. Abraham Mendelssohn, because of his conversion to Christianity, adopted the surname Bartholdy at the suggestion of his wife's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had adopted the name from a property owned by the Salomon family.

Mendelssohn's wife, Fromet (Frumet) Guggenheim, was a great-granddaughter of Samuel Oppenheimer.[1]

In 1795 the eldest son Joseph Mendelssohn established the bank Mendelssohn & Co. in Berlin, and his brother Abraham joined the company in 1804. Many members of the family worked for the bank until it was forced to shut down in 1938. In 2004 relatives of the banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1875–1935), led by his great-nephew Julius H. Schoeps (born 1942), tried to reclaim paintings once owned by him and later sold in the 1940s by his widow, in breach of his will.[2]

The family members include:

  • Benjamin (Georg) Mendelssohn (1794–1874), geographer
  • Alexander Mendelssohn (1798–1871), banker
  • Marie Mendelssohn (1822–1891), married Robert Warschauer (1816–1884), banker
  • Anna Warschauer (1841–1866), married Ludwig Passini (1832–1903), painter
  • Marie Warschauer (1855-1906), married Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1846–1909) see below (A)
  • Margarete Mendelssohn (1823–1890), married Otto Georg Oppenheim (1817–1909), jurist
  • Hugo Oppenheim (1847–1921), banker, married Anna Oppenheim (1849–1931)
  • Else Oppenheim (1873–1945), married Josef Block (1863–1943), painter
  • Anna Luise Block (1896–1982), publicist; married: (ii) Heinrich Hauser (1901–1955), writer; (iii) Alfred Winslow Jones (1900–1989), hedge fund pioneer
  • Robert Hugo Oppenheim (1882-1956), banker, married Charlotte Simon
  • Franz Oppenheim (1852–1929), chemist
  • Clara Oppenheim (1861–1944), married Adolf Gusserow (1836–1906), gynecologist
  • Franz von Mendelssohn (1829–1889), banker
  • Robert von Mendelssohn (1857–1917), banker, married Giulietta Gordigiani, pianist[3]
  • Eleonora von Mendelssohn (1900–1951), actress, married Martin Kosleck, actor
  • Francesco von Mendelssohn (1901–1972), cellist, theatre director
  • Franz von Mendelssohn (1865–1935), banker, married Maria Westphal (1867-1957), see below (B)
  • Lilli von Mendelssohn (1897–1928), violinist, married Emil Bohnke, violist and composer
  • Robert-Alexander Bohnke (1927–2005), pianist[4]
  • Robert von Mendelssohn (1902–1996), banker
  • Alexander Carl Otto Westphal (1863–1941), neurologist
  • Anna Westphal (1864–1943), married Eduard Sonnenburg (1848–1915), doctor
  • Marie Westphal (1867–1957), married Franz von Mendelssohn (1865–1935), see above (B)
  • Sebastian Ludwig Felix Hensel (1830-1898) married Julie von Adelson
  • Albert Hensel (1895–1933), law professor
  • Charlotte Hensel (1896–1990), married Werner Bergengruen (1892–1964), novelist
  • Felix Mendelssohn (Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy) (1809-1847), composer married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (1817–1853)
  • Karl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1838-1897), historian
  • Cécile von Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1870-1943), married Otto von Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1868-1949), see below (C)
  • Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1874-1936), law professor, married Dorothea Wach (1875-1949), see below (D)
  • Otto von Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1868-1949), banker, married Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1870-1943), see above (C)
  • Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1879-1956), chemist
  • Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1843–1850)
  • Elisabeth Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1845-1910) married Adolf Wach
  • Felix Wach (1871-1943)
  • Dorothea Wach (1875-1949) married Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1874-1936), see above (D)
  • Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1846–1909), banker, married Marie Warschauer (1855–1906), see above (A)
  • Katharine von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1870–1943)
  • Charlotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1871–1961)
  • Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1875–1935), banker
  • Enole Marie von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1879–1947), married Albert Constantin, Graf von Schwerin (1870–1956), diplomat, had issue
  • Marie Busch (1881–1970), married Felix Busch (1871–1938), state official
  • Dorothea Busch (1915–1996), married Hans-Joachim Schoeps (1909–1980), theologian
  • Julius H. Schoeps (born 1942), historian
  • Alexander von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1889–1917)
  • Nathan Mendelssohn (1781-1852) instrument maker, married Henrietta Itzig, cousin of Lea Soloman and granddaughter of Daniel Itzig
  • Arnold Mendelssohn (1817-1854), a political follower of Ferdinand Lassalle
  • Ottilie Mendelssohn (1819-1848) married Ernst Kummer (1810-1893), mathematician
  • Marie Elisabeth Kummer (1842-1921) married Hermann Schwarz (1843-1921), mathematician
  • Wilhelm Mendelssohn (1821-1866) married Louise Aimee Cauer (sister to Bertha Cauer)

Link unknown: Henriette Mendelssohn (1905–1944), married 1943 as his second wife Emmanuel Simon Andre Marie, marquis de Crussol d' Uzès (1902–1952)

References

  1. ^ "Samuel Oppenheimer". LOEB family tree. http://www.loebtree.com/oppsam.html. Retrieved January 2, 2011. 
  2. ^ "Great-nephew of original owner of $104m Picasso challenges 1949 sale". Daily Telegraph. 12 June 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1464389/Great-nephew-of-original-owner-of-104m-Picasso-challenges-1949-sale.html. Retrieved 14 May 2009. 
  3. ^ Eleonora von Mendelssohn's biography on Imdb website. Retrieved on 21 May 2009.
  4. ^ Profile of Robert-Alexander Bohnke, Bach Cantatas website. Retrieved on 14 May 2009.

Gallery

Children of Moses and Fromet Mendelssohn:

Children of Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy:

Moses Mendelssohn family
Sons of Mendel Dessau
Moses Mendelssohn (married Fromet Gugenheim) · Saul Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn's children
Dorothea Mendelssohn · Recha Mendelssohn  · Joseph Mendelssohn · Henriette (Maria) Mendelssohn · Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy · Nathan Mendelssohn
Abraham Mendelssohn's children
Other descendants of Moses
Related articles
Mendelssohn & Co. (bank)  · Itzig family (related by marriage) · Kurt Mendelssohn (descendant of Saul Mendelssohn)