Oppenheim family

The Oppenheim family is considered one of the most important and still active banking families in Europe. However, members of the family were first mentioned as silk merchants in Frankfurt am Main before moving to Bonn in 1740. Salomon jr. grew up there in the ghetto of Bonn's Judengasse before he laid the foundation stone of the later "Salomon jr & Cie" private bank by founding a money and goods trading business in 1789. 11 years later, Salomon jr. moved to Cologne to become part of the Jewish community that was re-established here after 424 years of the settlement ban. In 1808, the family acquired the house at Grosse Budengasse 8, which was also the headquarters of the bank until 1945. In Cologne, Oppenheim rose to become the second largest Cologne banker, and in 1822 he was the first Jew to be elected to the Cologne Chamber of Commerce, which is considered a milestone in Jewish emancipation in Cologne. However, honors that would have meant access to the royal court were denied to Oppenheim by the royal government with reference to his Jewish origin.

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Salomon jrs. Sons, Simon and Abraham, together with his widow Therese, took over the business in 1828, ended the commodity trade and continued to expand the banking house. They continued to invest in steam shipping, but also expanded their involvement in railroad companies and founded joint stock companies in mining, heavy industry and insurance. Customers now came not only from Cologne and the immediate vicinity, but also from Berlin, Paris or London.

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As a result of the revolution of 1848, the banking house faced the abyss, as depositors withdrew their money deposits, but the bank continued to be tied to the expansion of the railroad. Through friendly connections with the Berlin government, a bridging loan was able to save the bank. Similarly, Simon and Abraham  together with Gustav Mevissen converted the crisis-ridden Bankhaus A. Schaaffhausen into the first joint stock bank in Germany.

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Today, only an inconspicuous plaque commemorates what was once the largest foundation of the von Oppenheims in 1856: the synagogue in Glockengasse. Abraham financed the property mainly with his father's funds and decided to build a synagogue at his own expense for 200,000 thalers and to give it to the Jewish community as a gift. Until the construction of the new house of worship, the community had been using rooms in a secularized nunnery, also located in Glockengasse, since 1789, which were both too small and in need of renovation. Cathedral master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner designed the synagogue: a magnificent building with a distinctive shimmering gold dome. It thus formed a strong contrast to the German synagogues that had previously been built in an emphatically plain manner. The interior was based on Spanish-Moorish architecture, decorated in red, blue and gold, with filigree arches, columns and women's emporiums. On August 29, 1861, the synagogue was consecrated with great public participation; the public-shy founder himself was not present. The synagogue quickly developed into an established Cologne landmark. During the Reich Pogrom Night on November 9, 1938, SA troops destroyed the interior of the house of worship, and during the bombing raids of World War II it was destroyed down to its foundation walls. The last traces of the synagogue disappeared in the course of the redevelopment of Cologne after the war. The north-south drive was broken through the old town and Offenbachplatz with the new opera house was created. The former location is to be located today approximately at the junction of Glockengasse in the north-south drive.

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Due to the destruction of Cologne Cathedral during the French occupation, the royal building inspector Ernst Zwirner tried to raise funds for repair work from the wealthy population in 1835. At that time, Simon von Oppenheim regretfully sent back the list without contributing anything. The situation changed with the founding of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein (ZDV) in 1842. Nine of the family members living in Cologne joined the association: the banker Simon von Oppenheim, his wife Henriette von Oppenheim and four of their children, as well as the banker Abraham von Oppenheim with his wife Charlotte von Oppenheim and the unmarried Dagobert Oppenheim. In the course of joining, Simon offered to cooperate with the bank. In addition, they paid high annual dues, which assured Simon and Abraham honorary membership on the board. They were the only Jewish honorary members. In addition to generous private donations, the directors of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company, to which Dagobert belonged, donated St. Paul's Window in 1864, and after its destruction during World War II, it was reconstructed from 1992 to 1994. A few days after the completion of the cathedral in 1880, Simon and his wife Henriette celebrated their golden wedding anniversary and took this as an opportunity to donate a large four-lane window for the north transept. The window, designed by Michael Walters, shows characters from the Old Testament: Jesse with a flowering branch, and the kings Solomon, Jehoshaphat and Jesias. In memory of her husband Abraham, who had died two years earlier, Charlotte donated a four-pane stained glass window for the north transept in 1880 and became an honorary member of the board. The window also features figures from the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jude. Both windows cost 4,200 marks each, making them the highest single sums donated for windows. In 1881 and 1882, Dagobert covered the cost of the two saintly figures of Zechariah and Simeon and donated one of the four panels in the north nave.

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Where only a playground can be seen today, a children's hospital was built in 1881, donated by Charlotte von Oppenheim in memory of her late husband Abraham. It was one of the very first specialized children's hospitals in Germany. The infant mortality rate in the Rhineland in 1870 was 20%, as many people lived in poor housing under inadequate hygienic conditions. The new children's hospital was to be able to admit and care for all children, regardless of their faith. Charlotte initially donated 600,000 Marks for the construction; the total sum ultimately amounted to about one million Marks. (For comparison: the average annual salary in 1880 was 545 marks). The hospital was officially opened on October 9, 1883. The Renaissance-style brick building had been designed by master builder Weyer and was equipped with central heating as well as hot and cold running water in every hospital room. There were 60 to 80 beds available in the bright and airy rooms. Several verandas and a garden provided recreational opportunities for the children. At Charlotte's request, only nuns of the Cellite order worked as nurses. Children from poor backgrounds were treated for free. In 1886, the hospital also opened a polyclinic, which, due to its inner-city location, became the most important polyclinic facility for children in all of Cologne. The hospital was destroyed by aerial bombs in World War II and not rebuilt.

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Abraham was active as a politician in addition to his work as a banker. In 1846 he ran for the city council, before whose elections there were anti-Jewish outbursts, as a result of which many citizens demonstratively gave Abraham their vote. As a city councilor, he worked for the social and economic modernization of the city. In 1847 he was sent to the First United Parliament in Berlin to prevent the planned restrictive legal status of Prussian Jews. This planned to separate Jews once again from Christian fellow citizens and further exclude them from public life. His work in the background (Jews were not entitled to represent themselves) led to a defusing of the draft law and were a further step on the way to equality. In 1868, Simon and Abraham became the first Jews to be elevated to the Prussian baronial rank, which came with the surname Freiherr von Oppenheim. Their brother Dagobert was a publicist, politician and railroad entrepreneur. He founded the Rheinische Zeitung, which became one of the most important opposition newspapers, but was banned after one year in 1843. For a short time Karl Marx was its editor-in-chief. Friedrich Engels also published some articles here.

The zoo (1859) and the botanical garden "Flora" (1863) were co-founded by Eduard von Oppenheim, a son of Simon. Before the Second World War, the Flora still contained a temple and a marble sculpture, which were donated by Abraham. However, these were destroyed after the war and used for road construction.

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In 1839, the Oppenheim family was collectively involved in the founding of the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Eduard's brother Albert developed into one of the most important art collectors in Germany. The brothers converted to the Christian faith in the late 1850s as part of their marriage. This reflects the spirit of the times. Like many Jews, Salomon Oppenheim already had his children educated by Christian teachers, which Simon continued. The Jewish families of this time adapted more and more to their Christian environment, the conversion was considered a natural conclusion.

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