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 grandchildren, the composers Fanny Mendelssohn and Felix.
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:
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, Mendelson, or Mandelson. 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 string quartet, 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 Jewish 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 and a supporter of both Mozart and Beethoven.
Arnold Ludwig Mendelssohn, was a German composer and music teacher.
Joseph Mendelssohn was a German Jewish banker.
Friedrich Leo was a German classical philologist born in Regenwalde, in the then-province of Pomerania.
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.
Lotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a German author and art collector.
Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a musician, musical promoter, and salonièrre. She was the wife of banker and cultural patron Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy and mother of the composer Fanny Hensel, the composer Felix Mendelssohn, the singer and salonnière Rebeckah Mendelssohn Dirichlet and the banker and cellist Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A promoter of music and culture, she was the centre of a musical salon in Berlin, which had developed since 1819 from the domestic musical life of the Mendelssohn family and gained considerable importance from 1831 onwards through the activities of her daughter Fanny.
Sara Levy, born Sara Itzig was a German harpsichordist, patron of the arts and music collector. Her salon was the meeting place of the most important musicians and scholars in Berlin, and she was also known as a philanthropist.
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