Mendelssohn family

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.

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