HABER

HABER, family of German bankers. SALOMON (SAMUEL) HABER (1764–1839), born in Breslau, moved to Karlsruhe toward the end of the 18th century, and set up a banking and finance house. He and his sons were prominent in the early industrial development of Baden and Wuerttemberg, and from about 1820 S. Haber and Sons became one of Europe's leading bankers. In 1829 hereditary nobility was bestowed on Salomon's son LOUIS (LUDWIG; 1804–1892). Frequent marriages with other Jewish moneyed families fortified the Habers' financial and social status, but when in 1847 the bank experienced difficulties it was the government of Baden which came to the rescue, and not the family connections. Louis' brother MORITZ (1798–1874) took part in the formation of the Bank fuer Handel und Industrie in Darmstadt, the forerunner of the Darmstaedter Bank. Together with his brother Louis he was also among the founders of the Vienna Kreditanstalt (1855), and in 1863 of the Bodenkreditanstalt. The youngest of the brothers, SAMUEL (1812–1892), settled in Paris where Moritz had to take refuge after he had killed his opponent in a duel in Karlsruhe. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Schnee, Die Hoffinanz und der moderne Staat, 4 (1963), 68–86. (Joachim O. Ronall)