The Rothschilds – Shares in Waterloo
Hidden Command
The Rothschilds – Shares in Waterloo
(Die Rothschilds – Aktien auf Waterloo) (1940)
The Rothschilds – Shares in Waterloo reveals the family’s secretive rise to power through war profiteering and financial manipulation, exposing lasting influence behind world events.
Released in 1940, The Rothschilds – Shares in Waterloo (Die Rothschilds – Aktien auf Waterloo) is a historical drama that explores the origins and meteoric rise of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Set against Napoleonic Europe, it highlights the family’s shrewd handling of funds around the Battle of Waterloo, cementing their influence across the continent. The film serves as a stark example of wartime propaganda, exposing covert control behind key historical events.
A now deleted article from the Rothschild Archive, preserved by the Internet Archive, traces Mayer Amschel Rothschild‘s early business in Frankfurt and the European expansion by his sons. It highlights their role in managing aristocratic fortunes, government loans, and international currency exchanges. Though neutral in tone, it reveals the undercurrents of power that have allowed the Rothschilds to shape political and financial landscapes—a lasting influence that continues today.
Rise to Fortune
Mayer Amschel Rothschild‘s journey began humbly in Frankfurt’s Judengasse in the mid-18th century. His early career as a dealer in rare coins and currency exchange set the stage for the expansive network his five sons would build across Europe — in London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, and Frankfurt itself. The film places emphasis on Nathan Mayer Rothschild’s shrewd manoeuvres during the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, portraying how he manipulated information about the outcome and leveraged it for immense financial gain.
Rise to Fortune
Mayer Amschel Rothschild began in Frankfurt’s Judengasse in the mid-18th century as a dealer in rare coins and currency exchange. His five sons established a powerful network across London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, and Frankfurt. The film emphasises Nathan Mayer Rothschild’s manipulation of information surrounding the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, using it for immense financial gain.
This story reveals not just banking success but the consolidation of wealth and power through dubious methods. Acting as financial agents to European royals and governments, the Rothschilds moved vast sums covertly and extended loans that controlled political dynamics, operating as a shadowy cabal steering world events through economic manipulation and information control.
The Rothschild Empire
The Rothschild empire’s generational influence has embedded itself deeply within European finance. Their rise was shaped by trust, secrecy, and exploiting political crises—from hiding fortunes during Napoleonic invasions to profiting from wartime securities.
Shares in Waterloo challenges the mainstream narrative of benevolent stewardship, stripping away illusions maintained by official histories. It exposes the family as active architects of a financial empire built on manipulation and secrecy, relentlessly pursuing influence and power behind history’s shadows.
Legacy of Influence
Beyond the film, the Rothschilds’ historical impact is undeniable. Their international banking networks facilitated capital flows and political leverage across borders. Their model blurred the lines between private enterprise and state interests, placing the family at the centre of a system of influence spanning centuries.
Their generational strategy leveraged wars and political upheaval to expand dominance. By managing princely fortunes, underwriting government debt, and exploiting geopolitical turmoil, the Rothschilds exemplify social engineering through economic power—a legacy that continues to shape world affairs today.
Problematic Narrative
The deleted Rothschild Archive article, preserved via the Internet Archive, offers a detailed account of Mayer Amschel Rothschild‘s beginnings and how his family built a vast European banking network. It traces their strategic financial manoeuvres during the Napoleonic era, highlighting key moments that established their enduring influence in international finance and politics. This document, now removed from official sources, sheds light on the mechanisms behind the family’s extraordinary rise and the hidden hand shaping historical events.
The article (reproduced below) was likely removed due to its problematic revelations about the Rothschilds’ methods of influence, exposing inconvenient truths that disrupt the carefully managed public narrative.
Miniature illustrating the founding of the Rothschild fortune: the return of the (treasure) chests to the Elector of Hesse, a watercolour by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim.
Origins of the Business | The Rothschild Archive
Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) laid the foundations on which his five sons and their descendants would build a Europe wide banking empire.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild: founder
Mayer Amschel Rothschild was born in 1744 in the Judengasse, in Frankfurt. His father, Amschel Moses had a business in goods-trading and currency exchange. He was a personal supplier of collectable coins to the Prince of Hesse.
With the help of relatives, Mayer Amschel secured an apprenticeship under Jacob Wolf Oppenheimer, at the banking firm of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer in Hannover, in 1757, where he acquired useful knowledge in foreign trade and currency exchange, before returning to his brothers’ business in Frankfurt in 1763. He became a dealer in rare coins and won the patronage of the immensely wealthy Crown Prince Wilhelm I of Hesse (1743-1821), who had also earlier patronised his father. His coin business grew to include a number of princely patrons, and then expanded through the provision of financial services. In 1769, Mayer Amschel gained the title of ‘Court Agent’, managing the finances of Wilhelm I who became Wilhelm IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel on the death of his father in 1785. Business expanded rapidly following the French Revolution when Rothschild handled payments from Britain for the hire of Hessian mercenaries.
In 1806, Napoleon invaded Hesse in response to Wilhelm IX’s support for Prussia. On the advance of Napoleon’s army, Wilhelm IX was forced to go into exile in the Duchy of Holstein. The dilemma of how to conceal his coffers from the occupying forces was solved by Carl Friedrich Buderus (1759-1819), his financial adviser, who recommended that all his stock be confided to the House of Rothschild because they were best placed to protect his funds, and he thus entrusted part of his vast fortune to Mayer Amschel Rothschild for safekeeping. Mayer turned to his son, Nathan, in London. Nathan invested £550,000 of Wilhelm IX’s funds in British government securities and bullion. These investments proved extremely lucrative and, by the time Wilhelm IX returned from exile, had accrued considerable interest. The Rothschilds’ reputation for trustworthiness and astute financial management was firmly established.
From 1807, under Buderus’ influence, Wilhelm IX’s extensive financial transactions were largely exclusively handled by the House Rothschild, and until the expulsion of the French army from the Electorate of Hesse in 1813, Buderus, on behalf of Wilhelm IX, used the services of the Rothschilds to discreetly carry out financial transactions throughout Europe. In these early years of the 19th century, Mayer Amschel Rothschild consolidated his position as principal international banker to Wilhelm IX and began to issue his own international loans, borrowing capital from the Landgrave. He also profited from importing goods in circumvention of Napoleon’s continental blockade. As a result of these dealings, Mayer Amschel amassed a not inconsiderable fortune and, in 1810, renamed his firm M A Rothschild und Söhne, establishing a partnership with his four sons still in Frankfurt, (his son Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) had arrived in England in 1798, establishing a business in Manchester, before moving to London to found N M Rothschild in the City in 1809).
The five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Nathan Mayer Rothschild’s increasingly successful business provided a model for his brothers back in Frankfurt. In 1812, James Mayer Rothschild (1792-1868) established a banking house in Paris. Salomon Mayer Rothschild (1774-1855) settled in Vienna in 1820. Carl Mayer Rothschild (1788-1855) set up business in Naples in 1821, leaving Amschel Mayer (1773-1855), to head the Frankfurt bank. From these roots, the Rothschild banking business spread out across much of Europe becoming the most successful international bankers of the age. The core banking business is today in the hands of the seventh generation of Rothschilds.
Sources and links
Origins of the Business – The Rothschild Archive
The visit of the Elector of Hesse to Amschel Mayer de Rothschild
Source: :: The Rothschild Archive
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