Bernhard, Knight and Baron von Eskeles was an Austrian-Jewish banker/financier and Court Jew.
Background
He was born Bernhard Eskeles, the posthumous son of Rabbi Issachar Berush Eskeles, son of the Polish-Moravian Rabbi Gabriel Eskeles. At an early age he went to Amsterdam, where he entered a commercial house, of which he became manager at the age of 17, but met with reverses, and lost the fortune which his father had left to him.
Career
They were patrons of Mozart and also of Ignaz Moscheles who gave piano lessons to Caecilie. At this period Eskeles"s drawing-room was the rendezvous of men like Talleyrand, Wellington, Castlereagh, Hardenberg, and Theodor Körner. Eskeles"s name is often mentioned in the memoirs of this time.
His advice in financial matters was frequently sought by Emperors Joseph II, and later by Francis II and I, who entrusted him with many important missions to foreign countries.
He was sent to Paris and Holland in 1810. He was raised to the Austrian nobility in 1797, and became a knight in 1811, and a baron in 1822.
Eskeles took little interest in Jewish affairs, and during his short term of office as representative of the Jewish community new and vexatious measures were introduced which, according to his contemporaries, he might have prevented had he used his influence. He also established, with an initial contribution of 50,000 gulden, a fund for the maintenance of poor students.
Denis, who succeeded his father in the management of the banking-house, married Wilhelmina, Baroness Brentano-Cimaroli, and by his death the male line of the house became extinct.