51 Lion Wertheimer‘s Court Factor Document

Munich, 1780

Parchment, ink, handwriting

Gift of Mr and Mrs Adolf Wertheimer, 1933

In a document dated 1780 in Munich, Karl Theodor IV, Count Palatine of the Rhine, ensured free movement and undisturbed trade for Lion Wertheimer in the cities of Augsburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg. In the period when the document was issued, part of the finances of the European Monarchs, the provision of their armies, as well as the purchase of luxury goods, was managed by Jewish merchants. Through their cross-border family and trade relationships, Jewish merchants were able to handle high-risk transactions with flexibility.  In return, they could enjoy a social status which the otherwise discriminated members of the Jewish community would not have been able to reach. However, the merchants had to take into account the fact that when their master died, they were often expelled or indicted. This extremely rare document was donated to the museum by a late descendent of the family, Adolf Wertheimer, bank manager, the president of the Israelite Hungarian Literary Society (IMIT in Hungarian).