Frédéric Emile d'Erlanger

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Second marriage

On 3 October 1864, Baron d'Erlanger married the American Marguerite Mathilde Slidell (1842–1927), the daughter of the influential American lawyer, businessman and politician John Slidell (1793–1871). Slidell was the Ambassador of the Confederate States of America at the court of Emperor Napoleon III. His wife, Maria Mathilde Deslonde, was from an influential Creole family whose ancestors emigrated from Brest, France, in the seventeenth century. D'Erlanger met his second wife in New Orleans during a trip to America. She grew up on the prosperous plantation Belle Pointe in Laplace, Louisiana, 25 miles (40 km) west of New Orleans. Later, she moved with her family to Paris, where she and her sister received great attention because of their extraordinary beauty. Her sister Marie Rosine married the Comte de Saint-Roman. D'Erlanger and his wife built a villa situated in the affluent 16th arrondissement of Paris that still exists today. The access roads to the villa, "Villa Erlanger" and "Rue Erlanger", are named in his honor. In 1870, shortly before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the family moved to London. The headquarters of the banking house moved there from Paris as well. D'Erlanger resided at 139 Piccadilly in London, the former home of Lord Byron. The German-born baron and all his family members became British citizens. He was authorized to use his foreign titles of nobility, despite some strong opposition at first.

The couple had four children. Raphael Slidell d'Erlanger (1865–1897) was a zoologist and professor at Heidelberg. Baron Emile Beaumont d'Erlanger (1866–1939) later successfully took over the bank's management. Baron Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger (1868–1943) became a banker, but later acquired acclaim as a composer. François Rodolphe d'Erlanger (1872–1932) was a musicologist and painter whose palace, Ennejma Ezzahra in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, now houses the Centre des Musiques Arabes et Méditerranéennes. The latter's son Leo Frédéric Alfred Baron d'Erlanger (1898–1978) eventually became the head of the family-owned bank.

Career

Baron d'Erlanger was one of the leading bankers of Paris, the dominant financial center of continental Europe in the second half of the 19th Century. He invented high-risk bonds, especially for developing countries. Towards the end of the 1850s, Erlanger was able to terminate a banking crisis in Sweden with his bonds; since he became banker of Scandinavian governments. In 1862 Erlanger & Sons issued the first Egyptian government bond, together with the Frankfurt bank Sulzbach brothers, namely Siegmund Sulzbach de (1813–1876) and Rudolf Sulzbach de (1827–1904), with whom he also worked together on railroad bonds. He invested in railroads and mines in Africa, North America, South America, and Europe, as well as Russian and Tunisian government bonds and Southern cotton during the American Civil War. Other than most German and European banks he bet on the southern states during the American Civil War. In the late 1870s Erlanger invested in the British enterprise Alabama Great Southern Railway Company Limited which funded the takeover of Alabama Great Southern Railway and Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP). This railroad net, also known as the "Erlanger System", consisted of over 1,100 miles. He also financed the Swiss Simplon Tunnels between the Valais and Aosta Valley, then the largest railway tunnel in Europe. In 1884 Erlanger accompanied the IPO of the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways. In 1870 he saved the House of Thurn und Taxis after the crash of Belgian speculator André Langrand-Dumonceau.

Along with Paul Julius Reuter (1816–1899), the founder of Reuters news agency, his bank, Erlanger Ltd., funded the construction of a French transatlantic telegraph cable in 1869. His wife, Mathilde, Baroness d'Erlanger, sent the historic first message. In 1889, during an inspection tour of their American railroad investments, the couple created the d'Erlanger Grant for start-up capital to build a hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is known today as the Erlanger Health System. Erlanger, Kentucky was named to honor the d'Erlangers' financial contributions.

In 1904 however, the Erlangers sold their Frankfurt branch to Dresdner Bank and concentrated on their French and British branches. The main reason may have been the earlier deaths of Ludwig Gottlieb Friedrich von Erlanger (1836–1898), Viktor Alexander von Erlanger (1840–1896) and Carlo von Erlanger (1872–1904). Yet competition by big trading banks may have contributed, just as relocation of banks to Berlin and stricter stock exchange legislation.

Erlanger family tree

Löb Moses, later Ludwig Moritz Erlanger (1780–1857), currency broker in Frankfurt am Main

Raphael Erlanger (1806–1878), created in 1859 Barão d'Erlanger by Pedro V of Portugal and in 1871 Freiherr von Erlanger by Franz Joseph I of Austria. He was a banker and politician in Frankfurt, founder of the bank Erlanger & Sons

Susanne Adolphine von Erlanger (1829–1843) ⚭ Franz Josef Carl Langenberger, partner in the bank

Frédéric Emile Baron d'Erlanger (1832–1911), banker in Frankfurt, Vienna and Paris, founder of „Emile Erlanger & Cie" ⚭ I) Florence Louise Odette Lafitte, II) Marguerite Mathilde Slidell (1842–1927), daughter of John Slidell

Raphael Slidell Baron d'Erlanger (1865–1897), zoologist

Emile Beaumont Baron d'Erlanger (1866–1939), banker, musician ⚭ Catherine de Robert d'Aqueria de Rochegude

Robert (called Robin) Emile Frédéric Regis Baron d'Erlanger (1896–1934), partner of Erlanger Ltd. ⚭ Myrle Farquharson of Invercauld

Zoe Caroline Georgia Baroness d'Erlanger (b. 1930) ⚭ Paul Cater Hyde-Thompson

Liliane Mary Mathilde (Baba) Baroness d'Erlanger (1901–1945) ⚭ Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge

Gérard John Leo Regis Baron d'Erlanger (1905–1962), partner of Erlanger Ltd. and Myers & Co. ⚭ Gladys Sammut

Robin Gérard Baron d'Erlanger ⚭ 1969 Mary Elizabeth Josephine Pellew (b. 1947), daughter of Pownoll Irving Edward Pellew, 9th Viscount Exmouth

Penny Baroness d'Erlanger

Mary Caroline „Minnie" Baroness d'Erlanger ⚭ Winston Churchill (1940–2010), grandson of Sir Winston Churchill

Bianca Baroness d'Erlanger

Frédéric Alfred Baron d'Erlanger (Freddy, 1868–1943), banker and composer

Rodolphe François Baron d'Erlanger (1872–1932), French painter, orientalist and musicologist specializing in Arabic music, built Ennejma Ezzahra Palace near Tunis ⚭ Maria Elisabetta Contessa Barbiellini-Amidei

Leo Frédéric Alfred Baron d'Erlanger (1898–1978), banker in London (Erlanger Ltd.), sold the bank in 1958 to Hill, Samuel & Co, then Philip Hill Higginson Erlanger Ltd. ⚭ Edwina Prue

Tess Edwina May Baroness d'Erlanger (1934–2008)

Rodolphe Frédéric Baron d'Erlanger (1945–2000) ⚭ II) 1982 Lady Caroline Mary Cholmondeley, daughter of George Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley

Leo Frédéric Hugh d'Erlanger (b. 1983)

Joshua Robert David d'Erlanger (b. 1987)

Wilhelm Hermann Carl von Erlanger (1835–1909), from 1872 baron, justiciar with Erlanger & Sons, Frankfurt ⚭ Caroline von Bernus, daughter of senator Franz von Bernus

Franz Emil Alexander Baron von Erlanger († 1918) ⚭ Christina Grottero

Carlo Baron von Erlanger (1872–1904), ornithologist and explorer in Africa

Ludwig Gottlieb Friedrich Baron von Erlanger (1836–1898), partner of Erlanger & Sons in Vienna and Frankfurt, sold the bank to Dresdner Bank in 1904 ⚭ Mathilde Gabriele Alexander (opera singer as Mathilde Sessi)

Espérance Baroness von Erlanger, ⚭ Prince Alexander of Solms-Braunfels, pioneer of balloon flights, 1905 Austrian member of the International Olympic Committee

Blanche Baroness von Erlanger

Margarethe Baroness von Erlanger

Viktor Alexander Baron von Erlanger (1840–1894), banker in Vienna and London, partner of Erlanger & Sons (sold in 1904) ⚭ Henriette von Bognar

Ludwig Baron von Erlanger (b. 1862)

Adolfine Baroness von Erlanger (b. 1863) ⚭ Count Alfred of Salm-Hoogstraeten

Ida Helene Baroness von Erlanger (b. 1865) ⚭ Count Otto of Salm-Hoogstraeten

Victor Raphael Matheo Baron von Erlanger (b. 1867)

Marx Erlanger, later Christian Wilhelm Maximilian Erlanger, Music director in Frankfurt

Frédéric Emile d'Erlanger

Frédéric Emile d'Erlanger

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