Sign in

Private company

Mendelssohn & Co.

Private bank based in Berlin, Germany, taken over by the Nazi regime in 1938

Mendelssohn & Co. was a private bank based in Berlin, Prussia. One of the leading banks in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was taken over by the Nazi regime, under the policy of "Aryanization", because the owners were Jewish.2 It was founded in 1795 by Joseph Mendelssohn.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1795Founded1
  • Industryfinancial service activities, except insurance and pension funding1
  • HeadquartersBerlin1

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Berlin, Mitte, Jägerstraße 49-50, Bankhaus Mendelssohn & Co 05
Photo: Beek100, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Mendelssohn & Co. was a private bank based in Berlin, Prussia. One of the leading banks in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was taken over by the Nazi regime, under the policy of "Aryanization", because the owners were Jewish.2

The story

Founded by Joseph Mendelssohn in 1795.1

The bank was established in 1795 by Joseph Mendelssohn in Berlin. In 1804, his younger brother Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy joined the company. In 1815, they moved into their new headquarters at Jägerstraße 51, thereby laying the foundations of Berlin's financial district. Mendelssohn & Co. remained in that building until its divestiture in 1939.

Mendelssohn quickly rose to prominence among European banks. Starting in the 1850s, they acted as Royal bankers for the Russian Tsar and, from the 1870s, dominating the Central European financial market for Russian sovereign bonds and railway bonds. Only the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the Lenin putsch in 1917 put an end to these close contacts. The Mendelssohn family, through the descendants of the founding brothers, continued to run the company.

Mendelssohn & Co. survived the financial meltdown of the 1930s comparatively well. Following the death of Franz von Mendelssohn and Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in 1935, Rudolf Löb was appointed as chairman of the bank, the first non-family member to be chairman.

From Wikipedia’s article on Mendelssohn & Co., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Leadership

Who has led Mendelssohn & Co., and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Board members and other officers (2)

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

  • Rudolf Löb

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1938Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1795Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4