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The Bethmann (pronounced "Bate-mon") family has been remarkable for the high proportion of its males who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank which Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793) and Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782) founded in 1748 and soon catapulted into the foremost ranks of German and European banks. Even after the bank's sale in 1976, there are von Bethmanns engaged in commercial real estate and forestry in the 21st century. The most notable of the Bethmanns was Simon Moritz von Bethmann (1768–1826): banker, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. His sister ''Maria Elisabeth'' was the mother of ''Marie d'Agoult'' and the grandmother of ''Cosima Wagner''; his sister ''Susanne Elisabeth'', the great-grandmother of ''Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg''. ==Beginnings in Goslar== The Bethmann family, which produced the famous Bethmann banking dynasty, resided in Frankfurt am Main from the early 18th century onward.〔(''Herders Conversations-Lexikon'' ), p.517, volume 1〕 Earlier ancestors had come from the northern German town of Goslar.〔(''Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon'' ), p.899,〕〔Helbing, p.27〕〔Johann Philipp Freiherr von Bethmann, in Sarkowicz, p.58〕〔Klötzer 1994, p.62. Wolfgang Klötzer was the deputy head of the Frankfurt Historical Institute from 1960 to 1983 and served as its head from 1983 until 1991.〕 There – as burghers but not feudal nobility – the Bethmanns were among the upper crust of urban families. As such, they were entitled to delegate representatives to the town council and to bear a coat of arms; the earliest mention of the Bethmann name in Hanseatic Goslar – in the ''registrum parochianorum'', a compendium on wax tablets of the town's parishioners〔 – dates back to a ''Heinrich Bethmann''〔Die Grenzboten, 1878, p.493〕 in 1416.〔〔Klötzer 1994, p.62〕 The surname "Bethmann" likely was an occupational name, like "Bäcker"/"Baker", given to collectors of the ''bede penninc'', a tax requested (''erbeten'') from freemen in the Middle Ages.〔(Dictionary of American Family Names ) at Answers.com〕 Subsequently other Bethmanns – a ''Tile'', a ''Bartold'', a ''Hans'' and an ''Albrecht'' – appear in the records of Goslar, as owners of houses on Stonestrate and Korngasse, and as witnesses in the sale of houses.〔 Another ''Tile'' buys a house on Knochenhauerstraße in 1492, serves on the town council, and is mentioned ten times between 1503 and 1520 as ''Munteherr'', the title of an official responsible for minting of specie and weighing the metals produced from mining.〔 In 1512 ''Henning Bethmann'', the great-great-grandfather of Konrad Bethmann, is accepted into the merchants' guild.〔 In 1515 he is appointed ''Tafelherr'', i.e., the councillor responsible for the town finances; this is followed by appointments to the posts of ''Munteherr'' in 1528, ''Kistenherr'' in 1538, and in 1548 supervisor of the vitriol works that extract copper vitriol from ore.〔 A Bartoldt Bethmann sold a house on Piepmäkerstraße in 1548 and another on Glockengießerstraße in 1566.〔Magin, p.95〕 Henning's grandson ''Hieronymus'' is recorded in 1590 as a member of the merchants' guild; four years later he marries ''Ilsebey Drönewolf'' in St. Stephan's church.〔Helbing, p.28〕 Hieronymus served as chairman of the merchants' guild, as ''Kornherr'' responsible for grain stocks, town councillor, member of the ''Sechsmann'' inner council and finally of the ''Neuer'' or governing council.〔 Hieronymus died as the Swedes were entering Goslar.〔 The town never fully recovered from the ransacking and pillaging of the Thirty Years' War, especially the three years of Swedish occupation.〔 Some of the 19th century literature incorrectly claimed that the family had originated in the Netherlands.〔Dietz, p.621〕 The family assigned its archives in 1965 to the city of Frankfurt.〔Klötzer 1985, p.60〕 The Bethmanns' archival materials occupy some 300 meters of shelf space, and the oldest document therein is a calligraphed agreement dated 29 May 1321, regulating traffic on the street between the Basler Hof property, which the Bethmanns purchased in 1762, and a neighboring house.〔(''Institut für Stadtgeschichte'' ) Bankhaus Gebrüder Bethmann, (W1/9)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bethmann family」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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