Mendelssohn Family Collection

The Mendelssohn family was an upper-class family in Prussia which rose to prominence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its most renowned members include the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The family was also distinguished in banking, and several of the sons of the family were bankers.

Moses Mendelssohn was born in Dessau on September 26, 1729 and died in Berlin on January 4, 1786. He married Fromet Gugenheim, and they had six children: Brendel (later Dorothea after her conversion to Christianity), Joseph, Abraham, Reickel (“Recha”), Henriette (later Marie after her conversion to Catholicism), and Nathan. His eldest daughter Dorothea was first married to Simon Veit and became Dorothea von Schlegel after her second marriage. Joseph was the eldest son of Moses Mendelssohn and founded the banking house of Mendelssohn and Co. together with his brother Abraham. Joseph was born in Berlin on August 11, 1770 and died there on November 24, 1848. He married Henriette ("Hinni") Meyer, who was born in Alt-Strelitz in 1776 and died in Berlin in 1862. Abraham (1776-1835) was the second son of Moses and married Lea Salomon, granddaughter of banker Daniel Itzig. Lea’s brother Jakob changed his name from Salomon to Bartholdy, and Abraham added his wife’s name to his own, beginning the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy branch of the family. They both eventually converted to Christianity. Reickel, Moses’ second daughter was born in Berlin in 1766, married Mendel Meyer, and established a boarding school for girls in Altona. Nathan was the youngest son and married Henriette Itzig, the daughter of Daniel Itzig.

Joseph Mendelssohn had two sons, Benjamin (Georg Benjamin) and Alexander. Benjamin was born in Berlin on November 16, 1794, and took part in the uprising against Napolean. He received his doctorate at the University of Kiel in 1827, taught geography at the University of Bonn, and died in Horchheim near Koblenz on August 24, 1974. Benjamin married Rosa Richter. The banker Alexander Mendelssohn was born in Berlin on September 19, 1798, and died there on October 25, 1871. Alexander took over the banking house after his father’s death and was the last Jewish descendant of Moses Mendelssohn.

Franz von Mendelssohn, a banker, was the son of Alexander and his wife Marianne. He was born in Berlin on January 25, 1829, was ennobled in 1888, and died in Berlin on February 20, 1889. He married Enole Biarnez, who had been born in Bordeaux on October 6, 1827 and died in Berlin on January 3, 1889.

Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn-Bartholdy had four children: Fanny (1805-1847), Felix (1809-1847), Paul, and Rebecka. Both Fanny and Felix were musically gifted and composed music, although Felix became more celebrated for his compositions. In 1829 Fanny married the artist Wilhelm Hensel. Rebecka was born in Hamburg in 1811. She married the mathmetician Gustav Dirichlet, and had two children, Walter and Flora. Paul married Albertine Heine and had one son, Ernst, who was later ennobled. The composer Felix was born in Hamburg on February 3, 1809 and died in Leipzig on November 4, 1847. He was musical director of the Lower Rhine Musical Festival in Düsseldorf from 1833 until 1835, and then became conductor at the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig. In 1837 Felix married Cécile Jeanrenaud. Felix died several months after the death of his sister Fanny, and was survived by several children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lilli, and Felix.