The Rise of the CHAPTER I The Origins and the Early Activities of the Frankfort Family Rothschild FR RANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, seat of the Imperial Elections since the Golden Bull of 1356, acquired a dominating position amongst the great cities of Germany during the second half of the eighteenth century. Formerly the capital of the kingdom of the East Franks, it had become subject to the empire alone as early as 1245, and in spite of many vicissitudes it had maintained its leading position throughout the centuries. It expanded considerably during the last few centuries before the French Revolution and now numbered some 35,000 inhabitants, of whom one-tenth were Jews. By virtue of its natural position, lying so close to the great waterway of the Rhine and to the frontiers of France and Holland, it had become the gateway for the trade of Germany with the western states. Trade with England too constituted an important element in the activities of its inhabitants. It was natural that members of the Jewish race, with their special gifts for trade and finance, should be particularly attracted to this city. Moreover, towards the end of the Middle Ages the Jews in Frankfort enjoyed a great measure of freedom, and at first no difficulties were placed in the way of their settlement. It was not until I the non-Jewish members of the business community at Worms saw that they were suffering from the competition of these enterprising people that the Christian citizens. combined in their superior numbers. Now began a period of harsh oppression for the Jewish inhabitants. In order that they might be removed from the neighborhood of the most important church in the town, they were ordered by a law passed in the year 1462 to leave the houses they had been living in and to settle in a quarter set aside for the purpose-the so-called Jewish City.' This, however, consisted only of a single dark alley, about twelve feet broad, and lay, as described by Goethe, between the city wall and a trench. For more than three hundred years this continued to be the sole residence of the Frankfort Jews, whose continuance in the city became more and more unpopular with the other inhabitants. As early as the second decade of the seventeenth century a rising broke out under one Fettmilch, one of the objects of which was to drive the Jews out of Frankfort. This object was indeed achieved through murder and pillage. Although the Jews soon returned to the city, they had to submit to innumerable restrictions and regulations embodied in a special law dealing with the so-called "Status of Jews." They were made subject to a poll-tax, and were compelled, as being a foreign element in the town, to purchase the "protection" of their persons and property. Hence they came to be called "protected Jews." The number of their families was to be limited to five hundred and only twelve marriages a year were allowed, although this number might be increased if a family died out. The Jews were not allowed to acquire land, or to practice farming or handicrafts. They were also forbidden to trade in various commodities, such as fruit, weapons and silk. Moreover, except during fairs, they were forbidden to offer their wares anywhere except outside the Jewish quarter. They were forbidden to leave the space within the ghetto walls by night, or on Sundays or holy days. If a Jew crossed a bridge he had to pay a fee for doing so. They were not allowed to visit public taverns and were excluded from the more attractive walks in the city. The Jews accordingly did not stand high in public esteem. When they appeared in public, they were often greeted with shouts of contempt and stones were sometimes thrown at them. Boerne has stated that any street urchin could say to a passing Jew, "Jew, do your duty," and the Jew then had to step aside and take off his hat. However that may be, the oppressed condition of the Jews and the bent of many of them to usury, combined with the natural hostility of the Christians and their feeling that they were not as sharp in business, created an atmosphere of mutual hatred that can scarcely have been more painful anywhere than in Frankfort. The progenitors of the House of Rothschild lived under conditions such as those in the ghetto of Frankfort. The earlier ancestors of Meyer Amschel Rothschild, who laid the foundations of the future greatness of the house, existed in the middle of the sixteenth century; we know their names, and their tombs have been preserved in the old Jewish cemetery at Frankfort. Formerly the houses in the Jewish quarter were not numbered, each house being distinguished by a shield of a particular color or by a sign. The house in which the members of the Rothschild family lived bore a small red shield. There is no doubt that it is to this fact that they owe their family name; it is first mentioned in 1585 in the name "Isaak Elchanan at the Red Shield," his father's tombstone simply bearing the name Elchanan. About a century later Naftali Hirz at the Red Shield left the ruinous old building from which the family had derived its name, and occupied the so-called Haus zur Hinterpfann, in which the Rothschilds were now domiciled as protected Jews. 2 Until the time when Meyer Amschel Rothschild-who |