1721 and the Oppenheimer estate was auctioned in 1763. Although Oppenheimer was not himself learned, he was a benefactor on a scale hitherto unknown, building many synagogues and yeshivot and supporting their scholars. He also paid ransom for the return of Jews captured during the Turkish wars and supported as well R. Judah he-Hasid's voyage to Erez Israel in 1700. Known as Judenkaiser by his contemporaries, he was a man whose complex personality, a mixture of pride and reserve, defied historical analysis. Twenty years after his death it was estimated that more than 100 persons held residence in Vienna by virtue of their being included in Oppenheimer's privileges. Oppenheimer was buried in the Rossauer Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Vienna (Seegasse 9). Stones in the cemetery were buried during WWII for protection. Many were recovered and the cemetery was restored in the 1980s. One half of Samuel Oppenheimer's tombstone as well as the lower part of the second half were recovered during excavations in the cemetery in 2008 and was restored to its original location, as were the tombstones of several of his descendants. A photograph taken before the war reveals the elaborate inscriptions on his tombstone. One of Oppenheimer's sons, Simon Wolf Oppenheimer, established a banking house in Hanover. Simon Wolff's son, Jakob Wolf Oppenheimer continued the family banking house. It was there, from 1757 to 1763, that Mayer Amschel Rothschild apprenticed and learned the banking business that would become synonymous with that family name. Oppenheimer's descendants include the composer Felix Mendelssohn. References Sources Singer, Isidore and Kisch, Alexander. Oppenheimer, Samuel. JewishEncyclopedia. Bibliographies of Jewish Encyclopedia: L. A. Frankl, Wiener Epitaphien, p. xiv.; Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. x. 308, 347, 428, 431; Johann Jakob Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, i. 351, 428; Joseph Ritter von Wertheimer, Die Juden in Oesterreich vom Standpunkte der Geschichte, p. 133; Gerson Wolf, Geschichte der Juden in Wien, 1876; Constant von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'' s.v. External links Samuel Oppenheimer – LOEB family tree 1635 births 1703 deaths Court Jews German Ashkenazi Jews Austrian people of German descent 17th-century German businesspeople German bankers Jewish bankers