 Meyerbeer 's <unk> was Jacob Liebmann Beer ; he was born in <unk> ( now a part of <unk> ) , near Berlin , then the capital of Prussia , to a Jewish family . His father was the enormously wealthy financier Judah <unk> Beer ( 1769 – 1825 ) and his mother , <unk> ( <unk> ) <unk> ( 1767 – 1854 ) , to whom he was particularly devoted , also came from the <unk> elite . Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer . He was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer <unk> ( 1811 ) and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy , around 1817 . 
