page_title: Bethmann family
section_title: To Nassau and Aschaffenburg
hierarchical_section_title: Bethmann family / To Nassau and Aschaffenburg
caption_attribution_description: English: Nassovia Comitatus (County of Nassau.)from"Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum, Editæ a Guiljel et Ioanne Blaeu"(Theater of the World, or a New Atlas of Maps and Representations of All Regions, Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu), 1645. Deutsch: Nassovia Comitatus (Grafschaft Nassau.)from"Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum, Editæ a Guiljel et Ioanne Blaeu"(Theater der Welt, oder Neuer Atlas der Karten und Darstellungen aller Regionen, Herausgegeben von Willhelm und Johann Blaeu), 1645. Die Druckvorlage der Karte wurde von Salomon Rogiers zwischen 1610 und vor 1629 in Kupfer gestochen.
context_page_description: The Bethmann family has been remarkable for the high proportion of its male members 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 and Simon Moritz Bethmann 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 Bethmanns engaged in commercial real estate and forestry in the 21st century.
  The most notable of the Bethmanns was Simon Moritz von Bethmann, a 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 was the great-grandmother of Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.
context_section_description: Konrad Bethmann (sometimes spelled "Conrad") (1652–1701) was born in Goslar as the seventh child of the merchant Andreas Bethmann, four years after the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War. Much of Germany then was a patchwork of small to medium-sized jurisdictions. While this factor impeded development towards a nation-state, it ensured plentiful job opportunities for ambitious bureaucrats and entrepreneurs.
  Konrad left his hometown for an apprenticeship in Eisleben. He served as Münzwardein in Dömitz (Mecklenburg), then was appointed in 1683 Münzmeister to the Princess of Nassau-Holzappel in Cramberg on the Lahn river, followed by his appointment in 1687 as Münzmeister (Master of the Mint) to the Teutonic Knights in Friedberg, and in 1692 as Münzmeister for the Archbishopric and Electorate of Mainz in Aschaffenburg.
  He bequeathed a substantial fortune to his widow, Anna Elisabeth (1654–1727), whom he had married in 1678. She was a native of the northern German town of Minden, where the church of St Simeon, Protestant since 1529, and the Roman Catholic monastery of St Maurice stand side by side to this day. This may explain why in subsequent generations, there was always one son named "Simon Moritz".
  As a Protestant, the widowed Anna Elisabeth and her children quitted the Archbishopric for the Lutheran city of Frankfurt am Main; there she found it easier to comply with her religious obligations and benefited from the presence of relatives. Three of her daughters married citizens of Frankfurt. Her son Simon Moritz Bethmann (1687–1725) served the House of Nassau-Weilburg as an Amtmann or bailiff-magistrate, in Bergnassau on the river Lahn.
  This Simon Moritz Bethmann had three sons:
  Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793),
  Johann Jakob Bethmann (1717–1792) and
  Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782).
caption: Map from 1645: Cramberg and Holzappel (not located on this map) are upriver from Naßaw on the Lahn river (Lohn flu[vius]) in the direction of Dietz. Königstein is outside of Nassovian territory to the southeast. Frankfurt would be in the far southeast corner. The Rhine is the broad river colored in green.
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