Two baroque seals of famous Jews

We can discover something about the oldest societies through the symbols used on their seals. As literacy advanced after the medieval period, sealing became less important, but until modern times it remained an emblem of prestige and power. The seal told not only the name of the sealer but showed the owner's place in his society through the devices used. In late medieval Europe the change from Hebrew to Latin or a national language on Jewish seals, as well as the adoption of Christian symbols - including crosses, as incredible as it seems - tells us of the growing integration of Jews into the general culture of certain countries.

This was even more true after the Renaissance, during the Baroque period, a movement that can be clearly seen among the Court Jews, the financial factors of the nobility. The change can best be illustrated by the seals of the two most powerful court Jews of the seventeenth century, Samuel Oppenheimer and Samson Wertheimer.

Samuel Oppenheimer was the greatest Court Jew of the Baroque period and an important figure in European history. His financial support was a major factor in ending the siege of Vienna by the Turks and in their subsequent defeat at Budapest, which forced the Moslems from central Europe.

Born in 1630, Oppenheimer began his career as a financial agent and army contractor for the Elector Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate. He early showed his genius for organization and was recommended to the Viennese court by Margrave Ludwig of Baden, the imperial general in Hungary, to whom he had lent 100,000 gulden. He became contractor for the Austrians in the Turkish War, which began in 1682, and successfully supplied the army, which was under severe straits during the siege of Vienna in 1683. Oppenheimer then organized the building of the fleet of rafts by which the imperial troops crossed the Danube River and freed Ofen (now Budapest). It may be added that the prospects were so dismal for the Austrians that no Christian financier would take the appointment; the emperor and all but one member of the high nobility had fled Vienna.

Almost immediately after the victory over the Turks, Louis XIV of France invaded the Palatinate. That same year, 1688, Oppenheimer was made sole military purveyor for Austria. The two field commanders, his old friend Margrave Ludwig of Baden and Prince Eugene of Savoy, praised his efforts: indeed the Margrave wrote the emperor that without his credit, they would have lost. By the end of the War of the Palatinate in 1697, the Austrian state debt to Oppenheimer had risen to a figure between three and six million florins, depending on the writings of different historians. By this time, Leopold I, who disliked Jews intensely and had only very reluctantly appointed him, had learned to appreciate the obvious talents of his Court banker.(1) Now known as the Judenkaiser (Jewish Emperor), Oppenheimer was considered the most skilled merchant-banker in Germany since the decline of the House of Fugger.

Exhausted by the recurrent wars, Austria became involved in still another, the War of the Spanish Succession, which began in 1701. Though now an old man, Oppenheimer, aided by his two sons, was again appointed chief factor to supply the imperial forces. Two years later he died, with the Austrian state even more indebted to the firm. Emperor Leopold, whose finances were shaky, refused to honor the debt, forcing the family into bankruptcy. In this case, however, the repudiation led to an economic crisis because many powerful interests had deposited money with Oppenheimer. As Selma Stern wrote in The Court Jew, "Great lords and people of rank, princes and princesses, bishops, ministers, even reigning princes, such as those of Mayence [Mainz], Treves [Triers] and Saxony, secretly took part in Oppenheimer's enterprises and placed their capital at his disposal."(2) Austria had difficulty in securing credit for some time.

The rapid rise and continued power of Samuel Oppenheimer was due to several reasons. The first was his decisive nature, which appealed to the bluff military commanders; in fact, more than once he was saved from disgrace by the intervention of the army leaders in the field, who appealed to the emperor over the heads of reactionary cabals at the court. The second reason was his genius for organization. Oppenheimer created a network of Jewish factors throughout central Europe who owed him personal loyalty, many of them being his relations or those of his well-connected wife.(3) One of his sons married a daughter of Leffman Behrens, the Court Jew of Hanover; his brother Moses was the agent of the Elector of the Palatinate; a related nephew was Samson Wertheimer, his cleverest associate in Vienna, as well as the prosperous Gumperts, financial agents in Amsterdam and Cleves.

The third reason for Oppenheimer's success was his close connection with Christian firms. Aside from his secret deals with royalty, many top bankers and merchants openly became Oppenheimer partners. Indeed, this played a vital role in his acceptance by the Austrian emperor. Oppenheimer must also have had unusual charm, as shown by the fact that the supreme commander in the later wars, Prince Eugene of Savoy, went out of his way during the campaigns to collect Hebrew manuscripts for the financier. These formed part of the David Oppenheimer Library - David being Samuel's nephew - and became the cornerstone of the great Hebrew manuscript collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.