Adorable Story #31: The Erlangers

A family saga spanning three centuries and five continents

circa 1959: Film star Clark Gable (1901 - 1960) talking to Minnie D’Erlanger aboard Daniel K Ludwig's yacht. From the book: A Wonderful Time - Slim Aarons — Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images

With their roots nestled deep in the soils of Germany, France and Great Britain, the Erlanger family was no ordinary lineage.

Starting with a single broker in Germany, the Erlangers became one of the most important families of the banking world, a premier financial dynasty that moved mountains and vast empires with their strategic investments. As financiers, they orchestrated the funding of grand ventures across the breadth of the British Empire and the Americas.

Their clientele comprised a veritable who’s who of the era: from the mining magnate Cecil Rhodes to the British South Africa Company, the Confederate States of America, to global railway networks, and the governments of Austro-Hungary, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Prussia, and Sweden.

Their financial footprint seems something like a global board game, with investments leaping across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

The Erlanger family’s influence was well and truly a tale that spanned three centuries and five continents.

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Origins

The saga of the Erlanger family unfolds with the arrival of Löb Moses (Ludwig Moritz) Erlanger (1780-1857) in the bustling city of Frankfurt am Main in 1816. It was here where he started working as an exchange broker, finally amassing a small fortune that would become the cornerstone of the family’s wealth.

The family, originally known as “von Erlanger,” was of Jewish heritage, like many of the banking dynasties of Europe.

Ludwig’s son, Baron Raphael von Erlanger (1806–1878), converted to Christianity and, much like his father, found his calling amid the hustle and bustle of the stock exchange markets, before branching out to establish his very own, small bank in Frankfurt am Main, around the 1840s.

By 1865, the family’s banking operations were known as “von Erlanger & Söhne” (“von Erlanger and Sons”). From Frankfurt am Main, they opened operations in Vienna, Paris, and London.