Wertheimer family

In short, as one writer of the time pithily expressed it, "...all the contractors are Jews and all the Jews are contractors." Austria does not differ in this respect from Germany, France, and England.

The wealthy Jews who, in the reign of Emperor Leopold, received permission to resettle in Vienna, 1670, the Oppenheimers, Wertheimers, Meyer Herschel, and the rest, were all army contractors.

And we find the same thing in all the countries under the Austrian crown.

Lastly, we must mention the Jewish army contractors who provisioned the American troops in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

In the reign of the Emperor Leopold I, we meet with the respected family of the Oppenheimers, of whom the Staatskanzler Ludwig wrote in the following terms, After saying that the Jews were the arbiters of the most important events, he continues, In the year 1690, the Jew Oppenheimer was well known among merchants and bankers, not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

No less famous in the same reign was Wolf Schlesinger, purveyor of the court, who, in company with Luhl Sinsheim, raised more than one large loan for the state.

Maria Theresa utilized the services of Schlesinger and others, notably the Wertheimers, Amsteins, and Eskils.

Indeed, for more than a century, the court bankers in Vienna were Jews.