Daniel Itzig

Izzy Daniel ( born March 18, 1723 in Berlin, † May 17, 1799 in Potsdam) was a Prussian royal court factor and one of the most important Jewish bankers in Prussia. He was also head of the Jewish community of Berlin and the country's oldest Jewish communities in the Prussian provinces.

Life

Daniel Izzy was royal Prussian court factor, Münzunternehmer, Oberhof banker, leather manufacturer, ironworks owner, mining entrepreneur, landed gentry, the Higher Regional Elder of the Prussian Jews in Berlin and in 1778 together with his son David Friedländer founded the first Jewish Free School Chevrat Chinuch Ne'arim, Society of boys education ' in Berlin.

Together with Veitel Heine Ephraim Izzy made ​​his fortune as Münzpächter in the Seven Years ' War (1756-1763 ). The Prussian king Frederick II appointed him as the highest representative of the Jews in Prussia. He was subsequently court factor of the subsequent Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II and received from this in 1791 as the first Jew for himself and his family, the Prussian naturalization patent, so the legal equality with the Christian subjects of Prussia.

On one hand, the tradition firmly connected - so he was since 1764 Upper elder of the Jewish community in Berlin - on the other hand open for the contemporary arts and sciences, Izzy had his 15 children, and that his daughters as well as his sons, contemporary of the European Enlightenment educate obliged under other by the composer Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. So a contemporary wrote once: "Increase Itzig daughters grace their beauty by their talents, especially in music, and by a finely cultivated mind. "

Daniel Izzy, large modern citizen and head of one of the most respected and wealthiest families in Berlin, together with other like-minded people, wore through the promotion of young intellectuals, who had gathered since around 1770 in Berlin to Moses Mendelssohn, instrumental in that the and of Mendelssohn 's trailers driven reform efforts unfold and Berlin could become the starting point and the center of the Jewish Enlightenment in Europe.

At the corner of Castle Street and today Anna -Louisa -Karsch -Straße he bought a complex of five buildings - including the 1718 by Philipp Gerlach built Palais Montargues - and had them until 1765 converted into a stately palace. His great-grandson Friedrich Hitzig should tear it down in 1859 and run as an architect here the construction of the stock market.

What prestige enjoyed Itzig family shown by the fact that for the later Queen Louise when she came with her sister in 1795 of Mecklenburg -Strelitz to Berlin, which Itzig'sche house in Schöneberg main road in preparation for their festive collection by the Brandenburg Gate was selected.

Izzy was buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Despite his positive attitude towards modern Jewish Enlightenment, he was all his life remained faithful to the Jewish tradition, which is why his grave stone, of course, received a traditional Hebrew inscription.

Family

Daniel Izzy married on August 9, 1747 Miriam Wulff ( 1727-1788 ). They had 13 children.

• Bilka / Bella ( Babette ) Izzy ( 1749-1824 ) married Levin Jacob Salomon ( 1738-1783 ). Her daughter Lea Salomon married the banker Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel to their children included, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Rebecka Dirichlet.
• Isaac Daniel Izzy (1750-1806) was a Prussian court architect and banker. In his second marriage he was married to precious Wulff ( 1764-1851 ).
• Floral Izzy (1752-1814) married in 1772 the Königsberg ( East Prussia ) derived silk manufacturer David Friedländer ( 1750-1834 ), a pupil and friend of Moses Mendelssohn.
• Moses Daniel Izzy (1753-1783) died thirty years old.
• Elias Daniel Izzy (1755-1818; 1799: Hitzig ) was leather producer and City Council in Potsdam. He was married to Miriam Leffmann. His children included, among others Julius Eduard Hitzig (1780-1849), Henriette Hitzig (1781-1845), later the wife of Nathan Mendelssohn, and Caroline Hitzig (1784-1848), later the wife of Paul Erman.
• Bonem (Benjamin) Daniel Izzy ( 1756-1833 ) married in 1780 Zipporah Wulff ( 1760-1831 ).
• Vögele ( Fanny ) Izzy ( 1757-1818 ) married Nathan Arnstein (later Baron von Arnstein ) in Vienna and founded Vienna's first Jewish woman a literary and musical salon. She co-founded the Vienna Friends of Music Society, patroness of Mozart and Haydn, and like her sisters Hanna, Zipporah and Sara an excellent harpsichordist.
• Zipporah ( Cecilia ) Izzy ( 1760-1836 ) married in 1777 Simcha Bonem (Benjamin) Wulff, from whom she was divorced later. In his second marriage, she married the Jewish banker Bernhard Freiherr von Eskeles (1753-1839) in Vienna, where she, like her sister Fanny led a salon and Beethoven promoted.
• Sara Izzy (1761-1854), since 1783, married to Samuel Salomon Levy ( 1760-1806 ), was an outstanding harpsichordist, which developed from about 1800 their house behind the new Packhofstraße 3 to a musical-literary salon that was half a century.
• Rebecca Izzy (1763-1846) married David Veitel Ephraim (later: Johann Andreas Schmidt, 1762-1835 ).
• Jacob Daniel Izzy (1764-1838) married 1785 Sara Wulff ( 1766-1850 ).
• Recha Izzy (1766-1841) never married and gave her fortune to charitable foundations.
• Henriette Izzy (1767-1842) married the banker Mendel Oppenheim ( 1758-1820 ). Their descendants include the Oppen field.
• Lea Izzy (1768-1794) married the businessman Bernhard Seligmann (also: Seeligmann; 1769-1815 ).