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societies such as the ‘Black Knights,’ ‘The Knights of the Queen of Prussia," and ‘The Concordists."
In 1818 the second Tugundbund
was revived as the Burschenschaft
(Association
of Boys or Fellows).
The Burschenschaft
was a revolutionary
group of students who introduced martial exercises into the
universities. The Burschenschaft eventually fell apart. After a few years the exiled Landgrave came to
totally trust the Rothschilds.
‘...[Prince William] got more and more accustomed
to following [Mayer]
Rothschild’s
advice, and scarcely took any important financial step without consulting
him.’ This
princely steppingstone
was working out perfectly. It was paving the way towards Rothschild financial
freedom. Mayer wanted to become a creditor, and his goal was soon achieved. In 1810 the
Rothschild’s
firm became ‘Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Sons" (Nathan was not a public partner of
this firm). That same year Mayer loaned his own money to Denmark and when Dalberg took out a big
loan to go to the baptism of Napoleon’s son, the financial security of the Frankfort bank was set in
stone.
The House of Rothschild needed a new steppingstone.
The old one, the Landgrave, would not be
discarded, but they needed a younger, more political man who could be their key to controlling
Europe. That man was Prince Clemens Metternich who in 1809 became the Austrian Minister for
Foreign Affairs. He became the leading opposer of Napoleon, and the Landgrave moved in his exile
to Austria, hoping the powerful up-start would get Hesse back. So the Rothschild network increased
its operations in Austria - the land of the Hapsburgs. Around this time Mayer Amschel Bauer-
Rothschild got sick. Before his death he wrote a Will that
would dictate the structure of the Rothschilds.
Although the exact content’s of Mayer’s Will have
been kept secret, one edict is clear. It completely excluded the daughters and their husbands and heirs
from the business, and all knowledge of it. The Will totally exalted the importance of the family
circle. On Sept. 19, 1812 Mayer died. A bogus legend about his death maintains that his five sons
gathered around his deathbed and he split Europe between them. Only Amschel and Carl were in
Frankfort when he died. Nathan was in England, and Salomon and James were on the road (the
brothers were constantly traveling).
THE "FIVE WIZARDS’
When Mayer died, headship over the family fell on Nathan Rothschild of England. Even though
Nathan was not the oldest, the 5 brothers had voted unanimously
that he was the most capable to lead
them. Nathan was an intelligent, uneducated, self-absorbed
jerk. Though he was an impolite, foul-
mouthed man (‘...he could swear like a trooper.’) his money got him into the high society of England.
His cold view on life and power is seen in his response to an English Major who was being
sentimental about the horrible deaths of the large number of soldiers that had died in the war. ‘Well,’
said Rothschild. ‘If they had not all died, Major, you presumably
would still be a drummer.’ There is
a
story that says one of Nathan’s sons asked him how many nations there were in the world and
Nathan replied: ‘There are only two you need to bother about. There is the mishpoche [Yiddish for
family] and there are the others.’ This story may be false, but the attitude is real.
Nathan first settled in Manchester,
England, the center of cloth manufacturing.
In 1804 he moved to
London. As his wealth and his reputation began to grow he was able to marry Hannah Cohen. The
Cohens were a wealthy Jewish family from Amsterdam,
and Hannah’s father, Salomon Cohen was a
respected merchant in London. Nathan served with him as Warden of the Great Synagogue (the
Rothschilds relationship to the Jews will be discussed later on in this article). Hannah’s sister, Judith,
married the powerful Jewish Freemason Moses Montefiore (the Montefiore’s
were of "ancient" and
extremely ‘aristocratic Jewish stock’, probably another Cabalistic family), who was friends with
Nathan (Nathan’s sister Henrietta married a Montefiore, so did his second son, Anthony, and his
brother, Salomon’s great grandson, Aiphonse married a Sebag-Montefiore
in 1911). Nathan’s social
life revolved around the Cohens. Nathan was a Freemason. He was a member of London’s Lodge of
Emulation. Nathan’s accumulation
of wealth was incredible. His money-making
exploits were
unbelievable.
He was smuggling English goods past the French blockade during the Napoleonic
conflict, and making great profits. This smuggling required an agent in Paris, so Mayer, through his
Dalberg connections,
got his son James a passport and James went to live in Paris. A large amount of
