Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

Since 2015, the monument „Moritz and the dancing picture“ by Robert Schad and Pascal Coupot, can be found on the Freiheitsplatz. Furthermore, you can find a copper statue of Oppenheim. Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was the first Jewish artist with an academic background.

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim was born in the Hanau Ghetto and lived there until he was 20 years old. Due to the destruction during the Second World War, it is not known where his house was.

As a result of the dissolution of the Hanau Ghetto in 1806, Oppenheim took advantage of the new opportunities for Jews and received drawing lessons at the Hanau Drawing Academy from 1810, when he was only 10 years old. In 1813 he briefly attended the Grand Ducal Gymnasium (formerly Hohe Landesschule). In 1818 Oppenheim succeeded in continuing his artist training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1821 he traveled to Paris, where he became a student of Jean-Baptiste Regnault. The following years until 1825 he spent mainly in Italy, where he also won several art competitions. During this time he also met Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild in Naples. In the following years he worked for the Rothschild family. In 1825, Oppenheim finally returned to Frankfurt. He drew portraits of important Jewish people such as Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne and Gabriel Riesser. However, his portraits were also very popular among the non-Jewish population, so that he drew many famous people such as Goethe.

Oppenheim never turned away from his Jewish roots, although it probably would have made it much easier for him to convert to Christianity. Furthermore, Oppenheim chose specifically Jewish themes for his works. In this way he thematized the pride in one's own Jüdische origin. Especially his pictures from the cycle „Bilder aus dem jüdischen Familienleben" enjoy great popularity to this day.

His grave lies in the jüdische Friedhof in Rat-Beil-Straße in Frankfurt.