Abraham Oppenheim becomes the first unbaptized Jew…

Abraham Oppenheim becomes the first unbaptized Jew to be ennobled in Prussia, being created a baron in 1868 and being admitted to the inner circle of Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Oppenheim is the second son among the twelve children of banker Salomon Oppenheim and his wife Therese Stein (1775–1842).

Stein (also known as Deigen Levi) was the daughter of a businessman from Dülmen.

Salomon Oppenheim’s eldest son, Simon, had joined his father's banking house in 1821.

Abraham had followed in the same year, and their mother Therese Oppenheim had been given signatory power.

In 1826, Salomon Oppenheim had given his sons Simon and Abraham general power of attorney to continue the banking business.

Abraham had been made a partner in 1828.

The brothers have transformed their father's commission and exchange house into a major private bank.

Through Abraham's marriage in 1834 to Charlotte Beyfus, the Oppenheim family had become relatives of the Rothschild banking family.

A prominent figure in the finances of the German railway system, insurance industry, and the engineering and cotton industries, Abraham Oppenheim, together with Gerson Bleichröder and other bankers, had advised the king on financing the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 through government bonds.

The Prussian king had rejected the plan of Oppenheim and Bleichröder, advocated by Bismarck, to finance the war by privatizing state-owned mines in the Saar.