Edmond James de Rothschild | |
---|---|
Born |
Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild 19 August 1845 Boulogne-Billancourt |
Died | 2 November 1934 Boulogne-Billancourt |
(aged 89)
Resting place |
Ramat HaNadiv (Israel) Père Lachaise (France) (1935–1954) |
Nationality | French |
Spouse(s) | Adelheid von Rothschild (m. 1877) |
Children |
James Armand de Rothschild Maurice de Rothschild Alexandrine de Rothschild |
Parent(s) | James Mayer Rothschild |
Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. A strong supporter of Zionism, his large donations lent significant support to the movement during its early years, which helped lead to the establishment of the State of Israel.
A member of the French branch of the Rothschild banking dynasty, he was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, the youngest child of James Mayer Rothschild and Betty von Rothschild. He grew up in the world of the Second Republic and the Second Empire and was a soldier "Garde Mobile" in the first Franco-Prussian War.
In 1877, he married Adelheid von Rothschild of Naples, the daughter of Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, one of the Rothschild banking family of Naples, with whom he had three children: James Armand Edmond, Maurice Edmond Karl and Miriam Caroline Alexandrine.
Edmond de Rothschild inherited Château Rothschild, Boulogne-Billancourt and owned the Château Rothschild d'Armainvilliers in Gretz-Armainvilliers in the Seine-et-Marne département.
Edmond took little active part in banking but pursued artistic and philanthropic interests, helping to found scientific research institutions such as the Institut Henri Poincaré, the Institut de Biologie physico-chimique, the pre-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Casa Velázquez in Madrid, and the French Institute in London. He served as a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts and through it sponsored the archaeological digs of Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in Egypt, Eustache de Lorey in Syria, and Raymond Weill in Palestine.