The Rothschilds (film)

The Rothschilds (originally Die Rothschilds) is a 1940 German film directed by Erich Waschneck.

The film is also known as The Rothschilds' Shares in Waterloo (International recut version, English title). It portrays the role of the Rothschild family in the Napoleonic wars. The Jewish Rothschilds are depicted in a negative manner, consistent with the anti-Semitic policy of Nazi Germany. The 1940 film has a similar title and a similar plot to a 1934 American film, The House of Rothschild, starring George Arliss and Boris Karloff, that presented the Rothschilds in a more positive light. It is one of three Nazi-era German films that provide an anti-Semitic retelling of an earlier film. The others, both released in 1940, bore titles similar to films released in 1934: The Eternal Jew was a documentary-format film with the same title as the 1934 film and Jud Süss was a drama based on a 1934 film adaptation of a 1925 novel.

Because William I, Elector of Hesse chose not to join the Confederation of the Rhine when it was formed in 1806, William is on the run from Napoleon. In Frankfurt, he gives obligations from his Hessians, worth £600,000, to Mayer Amschel Rothschild so that Rothschild can carry them to England into safety.