{geni:about_me} born 1812, Vitebsk, Russia

died Jan. 12, 1878, Paris



Jewish philanthropist, banker, and financier who contributed much to the industrialization of 19th-century Russia and who successfully fought some of the discriminatory measures against Jews in Russia. His son Horace carried on his philanthropic work, and his grandson David was a well-known Orientalist and bibliophile.

After an early career as a contractor for the government, he founded a banking firm in 1859 in St. Petersburg. Along with other wealthy Russian Jewish families, he also financed the building of much of Russia's railroad network. He was created a baron in the early 1870s.

Günzburg is best remembered for his activities on behalf of his persecuted coreligionists. In 1863 he helped found the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia, of which he was the first president, to “disseminate among the Jews the knowledge of the Russian language and other useful subjects” in the hope that thereby “the Jews will become full-fledged citizens of the country.” The society thrived, sponsoring translations of the Bible and other works into Russian and founding a number of Jewish cultural societies. Günzburg also succeeded in having discriminatory laws against Jews in military service removed and in gaining greater freedom of movement for Jewish merchants and artisans.







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The Gunzburgs are an ancient Jewish family who came to Byelorussia from Germany via Poland. The first documented information about them dates to the 1840s. From this time on, the history of four generations of the Gunzburgs canbe traced up to 1917.

Originally, the Gunzburgs were members of the Jewish community of Vitebsk. Gabriel Yakov Gunzburg, the Vitebsk rabbi and a 1st guild merchant, had a considerable fortune. In 1849, he and his daughters Beila (Bella) and Elka were awarded hereditary honorary citizenship. In the same year, his son Yevzel (Iossel), a 1st guild merchant since 1833, filed a special petition for the rank of hereditary honorary citizen. Gabriel Gunzburg died in 1852.

Yevzel Gunzburg was awarded hereditary honorary citizenship for his "services to the treasury in wine-farming". In 1854 he was awarded the gold Medal of Merit, worn around the neck on the St. Vladimir ribbon. According to 2nd armycommander, A.N. Liders, during the Crimean war he "demonstrated great and ceaseless zeal in the regular supply of wine to the troops". A 1856 poison-pen letter claimed that Gunzburg had earned up to 8 million rubles in silver, while "no Jew in Russia ever had a fortune of one million rubles in bank notes". This letter did not prevent Ye. Gunzburg from being awarded another gold medal in 1856, this time the St. Andrew ribbon. In 1874, he was assigned the rank of counselor of commerce.

In 1859, Ye.G. Gunzburg opened a banking house in St. Petersburg with a branch in Paris under the direction of his younger son Solomon. Subsequent generations of the Gunzburgs had established familial and business ties with the largest banking houses of Europe. Yevzel's son Horace (Hertz) was married to his cousin Anna Gesselevna, nee Rosenberg. Her sisters were married to banking house owner Sigismund Warburg, the well-known banker von Hirsch, Hertzfeld of Budapest, and Odessa banking house promoter Ye. Ashkenazi. Yevzel's daughter Mathilda was married to the nephew of P. Fuld, an important banker who was finance minister under Napoleon III. One of Yevzel's granddaughters enteredinto the marriage with baron E. Rothschield.

Ye.G. Gunzburg died in 1878 and was buried in Paris, where he had spent a great deal of time during his later years. His affairs in St. Petersburg were transacted by his elder son Horace.

Of all the numerous Gunzburgs, only the family of Horace Yevzelevich (Osipovich) remained in Russia until 1917. All of its members were engaged in business and charity. However, the recognized head of the family and the leader ofall commercial and charitable undertakings was H.O. Gunzburg. He entered the history of Russian business as a major promoter of private commercial banks. He was also influential in the history of Russian charities. Russian Jewry remembers him as an extremely energetic and influential petitioner for his co-religionists, the founder of a network of Jewish educational and charitable organizations, and the leader of the St. Petersburg Jewish community for manyyears.

Horace's son David inherited a position in the community and extensive contacts in government circles. Unlike the rest of the family, however, he focused his interests on oriental studies rather than business. Russian Jewry is indebted to him for the first Jewish higher educational institution, the "Courses in Oriental Studies" (the Jewish Academy). His brothers Alexander, Alfred, Peter and Vladimir held stakes in many enterprises. Alexander and Alfred Gunzburg were the only Jews with the rank of reserve cornets (junior cavalry officers) in the Russian army. After David Gunzburg died, Alexander succeeded him as the head of the family. He continued the Gunzburgs' charitable activities and during the First World War he was the only Jewish member of the Tatyana Committee, which provided relief to refugees under the auspices of Great Princess Tatyana. Thanks to his petitions, Jewish refugees were allowed to move out of the Pale. In late summer, 1917 the Gunzburgs left Russia