Ferdinand Eberstadt (mayor)

Ferdinand Falk Eberstadt (14 January 1808 – 9 February 1888) was the first Jewish mayor in Germany. He served as mayor of Worms from 1849 to 1852.[1][2]

He was born to a prominent Jewish family in Worms on 14 January 1808. His parents were Amschel Löb (August Ludwig) Eberstadt (1771–1839) und Esther Gernsheim (1775–1819). In 1839, he and his brothers succeeded to their father's textile merchant company, and he became a successful businessman.[1]

When Eberstadt resigned from the office of mayor in 1852, he and his family moved to Mannheim.[3] He died on 9 February 1888 in Mannheim, where he and his wife are buried in the Jewish cemetery.[1]

Family and legacy
Eberstadt's daughter Elizabeth, who became Lady Lewis, in a painting by John Singer Sargent, 1892

In 1837 Eberstadt married Sara Zelie Seligmann from Kreuznach and they had ten children,[1] one of whom, Maximilian (Max), died as a young man and is buried in Willesden Jewish Cemetery, London, in a grave designed by the famous artist Edward Burne-Jones, who was a friend of Max's twin sister, Elizabeth.[2][4][5] Elizabeth married the distinguished solicitor Sir George Lewis, 1st Baronet.

Eberstadt's son Rudolph became professor of architecture in Berlin.

Eberstadt's daughter Emma married Bernard Kahn. Their son Otto Hermann Kahn spent most of his adult life in the United States, where he became an investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Ferdinand (Falk) Eberstadt". Nibelungenstadt Worms. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  2. Historic England (5 September 2017). "Tomb of Max Eberstadt, Willesden Jewish Cemetery (United Synagogue Cemetery) (1449845)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  3. Goldsmith, Ernest (22 January 2009). "Ferdinand Eberstadt (1808 Worms–1888 Mannheim) And His Family". rijo-research.de. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  4. "Design for the Gravestone of Max Eberstadt". Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  5. Banerjee, Jacqueline (21 November 2018). "Caricature – Line of Heads: Burne-Jones and Anti-Semitism". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  6. Ingham, John N. (1983). Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, vol. 2. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, p 689. ISBN 0 313 23908 8.
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