The Mendelssohn family are the descendants of Mendel of Dassau. The German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his brother Saul were the first to adopt the surname Mendelssohn. The family includes his grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn and his granddaughter, the composer Fanny Mendelssohn. Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn was a significant figure in the Age of Enlightenment in Germany. Mendelssohn had ten children, of whom six lived to adulthood. Of those six children, only Recha and Joseph retained the Jewish religion. Abraham Mendelssohn, because of his conversion to Reformed Christianity, adopted the surname Bartholdy at the suggestion of his wife's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had adopted the name from a property owned by the Salomon family. Mendelssohn's wife, Fromet (Frumet) Guggenheim, was a great-granddaughter of Samuel Oppenheimer. Mendelssohn & Co. Bank In 1795 Moses Mendelssohn's eldest son Joseph established the bank Mendelssohn & Co. in Berlin, and his brother Abraham joined the company in 1804. Many members of the family worked for the bank until it was forced to shut down in 1938. In 2004 relatives of the banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1875–1935), led by his great-nephew Julius H. Schoeps (born 1942), tried to reclaim paintings once owned by him and later sold in the 1940s by his widow, in breach of his will. Mendelssohn family Descendants of Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), philosopher, married Fromet Guggenheim (1737–1812); 6 children Brendel Mendelssohn (1763–1839), married (i) Simon Veit, (ii) Friedrich von Schlegel Jonas Veit (1790–1854) Philipp Veit (1793–1877) Recha Mendelssohn (1767–1831) Joseph Mendelssohn (1770–1848), banker Benjamin (Georg) Mendelssohn (1794–1874), geographer Alexander Mendelssohn (1798–1871), banker Marie Mendelssohn (1822–1891), married Robert Warschauer (1816–1884), banker Anna Warschauer (1841–1866), married Ludwig Passini (1832–1903), painter Marie Warschauer (1855–1906), married Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1846–1909) see below (A) Margarete Mendelssohn (1823–1890), married Otto Georg Oppenheim (1817–1909), jurist Hugo Oppenheim (1847–1921), banker, married Anna Oppenheim (1849–1931) Else Oppenheim (1873–1945), married Josef Block (1863–1943), painter Anna Luise Block (1896–1982), publicist; married: (ii) (1901–1955), writer; (iii) Alfred Winslow Jones (1900–1989), hedge fund pioneer Robert Hugo Oppenheim (1882–1956), banker married (i) Charlotte Simon; (ii) Ehrentraut Margaret Von Ilberg 4 children Hugo Oppenheim, Alexander Oppenheim, Imogene Oppenheim, Roberta Marielouise Oppenheim Franz Oppenheim (1852–1929), chemist Clara Oppenheim (1861–1944), married Adolf Gusserow (1836–1906), gynecologist Franz von Mendelssohn (1829–1889), banker Robert von Mendelssohn (1857–1917), banker, married Giulietta Gordigiani, pianist Eleonora von Mendelssohn (1900–1951), actress, married Martin Kosleck, actor Francesco von Mendelssohn (1901–1972), cellist, theatre director