The Mendelssohn family are the descendants of Mendel of Dessau. The German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his brother Saul were the first to adopt the surname Mendelssohn. The family includes his grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, and his granddaughter, the composer Fanny 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 religion. [1] Abraham Mendelssohn, because of his conversion to Reformed 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.[ citation needed ]
Mendelssohn's wife, Fromet (Frumet) Guggenheim, was a great-granddaughter of Samuel Oppenheimer. [2]
In 1795 Moses Mendelssohn's eldest son Joseph 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. [3]
Descendants of Moses Mendelssohn
Descendants of Saul Mendelssohn include:
Children of Moses and Fromet Mendelssohn:
Children of Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy:
Moses Mendelssohn was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the Haskalah, or 'Jewish Enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, and originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought and literature. Through his writings on philosophy and religion he came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both Christian and Jewish inhabitants of German-speaking Europe and beyond. His involvement in the Berlin textile industry formed the foundation of his family's wealth.
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto, the String Octet, and the melody used in the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.
The surname מענדעלסאן is transliterated to English as Mendelssohn, Mendelsson, or Mendelson. It is a common Polish/German Jewish surname. The variant spellings are used interchangeably, often even within a single family.
Fanny Mendelssohn was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was known as Fanny Hensel after her marriage. Her compositions include a piano trio, a piano quartet, an orchestral overture, four cantatas, more than 125 pieces for the piano and over 250 lieder, most of which were unpublished in her lifetime. Although lauded for her piano technique, she rarely gave public performances outside her family circle.
Ernst Eduard Kummer was a German mathematician. Skilled in applied mathematics, Kummer trained German army officers in ballistics; afterwards, he taught for 10 years in a gymnasium, the German equivalent of high school, where he inspired the mathematical career of Leopold Kronecker.
Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a German chemist and a pioneer in the manufacture of aniline dye. He co-founded the Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation (AGFA), a German chemical company.
Kurt Wilhelm Sebastian Hensel was a German mathematician born in Königsberg.
Daniel Itzig was a court Jew of Kings Frederick II the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia.
Many of the thirteen children of Daniel Itzig and Miriam Wulff, and their descendants and spouses, had significant impact on both Jewish and German social and cultural history. Notable ones are set out below.
Abraham Ernst Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a German banker and philanthropist. He was the father of Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Rebecka Mendelssohn, and Paul Mendelssohn.
Paul Hugo Wilhelm Hensel was a German philosopher.
Baroness Franziska "Fanny" von Arnstein, born Vögele Itzig, was a Viennese socialite and salonnière.
Joseph Mendelssohn was a German Jewish banker.
Friedrich Leo was a German classical philologist born in Regenwalde, in the then-province of Pomerania.
Hans-Günter Klein was a German musicologist, librarian, art historian, LGBT activist and researcher on the Mendelssohn family.
Sebastian Ludwig Felix Hensel was a German landowner, entrepreneur and author.
Simon Veit was a German merchant and banker of Jewish ancestry.
Paul Robert Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a German Jewish banker and art collector. The persecution of his family under the Nazis has resulted in numerous lawsuits for restitution.
Felix Busch was a German administrative lawyer whose family was persecuted by the Nazis because of their Jewish heritage.
Lotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a German author and art collector.
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