Élie de Rothschild
Encyclopedia
Baron Élie de Rothschild (29 May 1917 – 6 August 2007) was a French
banker, a member of the French branch
of the Rothschild family
. He followed his father as a partner in the family bank, de Rothschild Frères, and ran the Château Lafite-Rothschild
premier cru claret
vineyard from 1946 to 1974.
. His mother was the daughter of Edmond Beer, a great-great-niece of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer
, and elder sister of Marie-Louise Beer, who married Lionel Nathan de Rothschild
from the English branch of the Rothschild family
. Élie and his siblings (Diane, Alain and Cécile) were brought up at Château de Laversine, near Chantilly
, and at the family mansion at 23 avenue de Marigny
near the Elysée Palace
in Paris.
in 1940. Both were captured by the Nazis close to the Belgian border during World War II
. Élie was taken to a prisoner of war
camp at Nienberg near Hamburg
. After being discovered planning to escape, he was taken to Colditz Castle
, then to Lübeck
, one of the toughest POW camps. There, he was reunited with his brother. Despite being persons of Jewish descent
, both were treated by the Wehrmacht as captured officers. He was released in early 1944. Elie later recounted that, despite the harsh condition of the prison, he had been treated well and respectfully throughout.
While in Colditz, Élie had written to his childhood sweetheart Baroness Liliane Fould-Springer (a future grandaunt of Helena Bonham Carter
) and asked her to marry him, which they did by proxy by 1942 - Élie being allowed to take his marriage vows while imprisoned. Her mother thought her foolish to take on the Rothschild name with the Nazis in control of France. However, they were not troubled during the Nazi occupation. The Fould-Springers had extensive interests in Austria, and one branch of the family owned Château Beychevelle, a Bordeaux estate close to Château Lafite in Pauillac in the Médoc.
headquarters during the war. Élie and his family moved to 11 rue Masseran in the 1950s, where he displayed his great collection of art, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough
, Dubuffet and Picasso.
Élie and his brother assisted their cousin, Guy de Rothschild
, to rebuild the de Rothschild Frères investment bank, and its Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord subsidiary. Élie took charge of Château Lafite-Rothschild, the premier cru Pauillac
vineyard in the Médoc
, in 1946, which he owned jointly with Alain, Guy and their English cousin Jimmy de Rothschild. Élie became president of the family's Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) in 1956, diversifying into hotels, motels and restaurants.
Élie was a friend of Prince Aly Khan
and Gianni Agnelli
. In 1954, when Liliane was out of town, Élie was introduced to divorcee Pamela Churchill
(later Pamela Harriman). According to Élie, "She was sweet, charming and pretty. I wanted to go to bed with her and I did." Nevertheless, Liliane quickly saw off her rival. When the Duke of Windsor asked her: "Which Rothschild is the lover of Pamela Churchill?' she replied: "My husband, Sir". This remark undermined Pamela as much as any other retributive strikes and presently the affair receded. However, Elie de Rothschild continued to have a number of mistresses.
His nephew Eric de Rothschild, son of Alain, took over at Château Lafite-Rothschild in 1974.
outside Innsbruck
in Austria
. His wife predeceased him in 2003. He is survived by a son, Nathaniel, and two daughters, Elisabeth and Nelly.
He is also survived by an illegitimate daughter (fathered with the Parisian antiquaire Ariane Dandois), Ondine, who bears the family name.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
banker, a member of the French branch
Rothschild banking family of France
The Rothschild banking family of France was founded in 1812 in Paris by James Mayer Rothschild . James was sent there from his home in Frankfurt, Germany by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
of the Rothschild family
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
. He followed his father as a partner in the family bank, de Rothschild Frères, and ran the Château Lafite-Rothschild
Château Lafite-Rothschild
Château Lafite Rothschild is a wine estate in France, owned by members of the Rothschild family since the 19th century. The name Lafite comes from the Gascon term "la hite" meaning "small hill"....
premier cru claret
Claret
Claret is a name primarily used in British English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France.-Usage:Claret derives from the French clairet, a now uncommon dark rosé and the most common wine exported from Bordeaux until the 18th century...
vineyard from 1946 to 1974.
Lineage
Élie de Rothschild was the younger son of Baron Robert Philippe de Rothschild and Nelly Beer. His father was a partner in de Rothschild Frères with his cousin, Baron Edouard Alphonse de RothschildEdouard Alphonse de Rothschild
Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild was a French financier and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France....
. His mother was the daughter of Edmond Beer, a great-great-niece of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, and elder sister of Marie-Louise Beer, who married Lionel Nathan de Rothschild
Lionel Nathan de Rothschild
Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was an English banker and Conservative politician best remembered as the creator of Exbury Gardens...
from the English branch of the Rothschild family
Rothschild banking family of England
The Rothschild banking family of England was founded in 1798 by Nathan Mayer von Rothschild who first settled in Manchester but then moved to London. Nathan was sent there from his home in Frankfurt by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
. Élie and his siblings (Diane, Alain and Cécile) were brought up at Château de Laversine, near Chantilly
Chantilly, Oise
Chantilly is a small city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune in the department of Oise.It is in the metropolitan area of Paris 38.4 km...
, and at the family mansion at 23 avenue de Marigny
Hôtel de Marigny
The Hôtel de Marigny is a town house in Paris, France, on the Avenue Marigny, not far from the Elysée Palace. It is used as a residence for state visitors to France. The house has been the property of the French government since 1972...
near the Elysée Palace
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....
in Paris.
World War II service
He and his brother served as officers in a cavalry regiment—the Anciens 11èmes Cuirassiers—when Nazi Germany invaded FranceBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in 1940. Both were captured by the Nazis close to the Belgian border during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Élie was taken to a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp at Nienberg near Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. After being discovered planning to escape, he was taken to Colditz Castle
Colditz Castle
Colditz Castle is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. Used as a workhouse for the indigent and a mental institution for over 100 years, it gained international fame as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for...
, then to Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, one of the toughest POW camps. There, he was reunited with his brother. Despite being persons of Jewish descent
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, both were treated by the Wehrmacht as captured officers. He was released in early 1944. Elie later recounted that, despite the harsh condition of the prison, he had been treated well and respectfully throughout.
While in Colditz, Élie had written to his childhood sweetheart Baroness Liliane Fould-Springer (a future grandaunt of Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
) and asked her to marry him, which they did by proxy by 1942 - Élie being allowed to take his marriage vows while imprisoned. Her mother thought her foolish to take on the Rothschild name with the Nazis in control of France. However, they were not troubled during the Nazi occupation. The Fould-Springers had extensive interests in Austria, and one branch of the family owned Château Beychevelle, a Bordeaux estate close to Château Lafite in Pauillac in the Médoc.
Post-war life
After the war, Élie, Alain and their wives shared the family mansion at avenue de Marigny, which had been used as the LuftwaffeLuftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
headquarters during the war. Élie and his family moved to 11 rue Masseran in the 1950s, where he displayed his great collection of art, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
, Dubuffet and Picasso.
Élie and his brother assisted their cousin, Guy de Rothschild
Guy de Rothschild
Baron Guy Édouard Alphonse Paul de Rothschild was a French banker and member of the Rothschild family. He chaired the bank Rothschild Frères from 1967 to 1979, when it was nationalized by the French government, and maintained possessions in other French and foreign companies including Imerys...
, to rebuild the de Rothschild Frères investment bank, and its Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord subsidiary. Élie took charge of Château Lafite-Rothschild, the premier cru Pauillac
Pauillac
Pauillac is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-Wine:The commune consists of only 3000 acres of vineyards in the Haut-Médoc between the villages of Saint-Julien to the south and Saint-Estèphe to the north, but is home to three of Bordeaux's five...
vineyard in the Médoc
Médoc
The Médoc is a region of France, well known as a wine growing region, located in the département of Gironde, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, north of Bordeaux. Its name comes from Medullicus, or "country of the Medulli", the local Celtic tribe...
, in 1946, which he owned jointly with Alain, Guy and their English cousin Jimmy de Rothschild. Élie became president of the family's Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) in 1956, diversifying into hotels, motels and restaurants.
Élie was a friend of Prince Aly Khan
Prince Aly Khan
Prince Ali Solomone Aga Khan , known as Aly Khan was a son of Aga Khan III, the head of the Ismaili Muslims, and the father of Aga Khan IV. A socialite, racehorse owner and jockey, he was the third husband of actress Rita Hayworth...
and Gianni Agnelli
Gianni Agnelli
Giovanni Agnelli , better known as Gianni Agnelli , was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce, and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research...
. In 1954, when Liliane was out of town, Élie was introduced to divorcee Pamela Churchill
Pamela Harriman
Pamela Beryl Harriman , also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born socialite who was married and linked to important and powerful men. In later life, she became a political activist for the United States Democratic Party and a diplomat...
(later Pamela Harriman). According to Élie, "She was sweet, charming and pretty. I wanted to go to bed with her and I did." Nevertheless, Liliane quickly saw off her rival. When the Duke of Windsor asked her: "Which Rothschild is the lover of Pamela Churchill?' she replied: "My husband, Sir". This remark undermined Pamela as much as any other retributive strikes and presently the affair receded. However, Elie de Rothschild continued to have a number of mistresses.
His nephew Eric de Rothschild, son of Alain, took over at Château Lafite-Rothschild in 1974.
Death
Élie died of a heart attack when on vacation at his hunting lodge near the village of ScharnitzScharnitz
Scharnitz is a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land and is located 16,40 km north of Innsbruck as well as 9 km above Seefeld in Tirol at the border to Germany. It has one of the biggest area size and possesses 12 parts. The village was founded in the early middle age and was once an...
outside Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. His wife predeceased him in 2003. He is survived by a son, Nathaniel, and two daughters, Elisabeth and Nelly.
He is also survived by an illegitimate daughter (fathered with the Parisian antiquaire Ariane Dandois), Ondine, who bears the family name.
Sources
- Mssr. Rothschild's Tribute at Respectance.com
- Reflected Glory: the Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman, Sally Bedell Smith, 1996. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80950-8
- Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 7 August 2007
- Obituary, The Times, 8 August 2007
- Obituary, The Independent, 9 August 2007