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Felix Mendelssohn
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===Childhood=== [[File:Mendelssohn Bartholdy 1821FXD.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=|Felix Mendelssohn aged 12 (1821) by [[Carl Joseph Begas]]]] Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in [[Hamburg]], at the time an independent [[city-state]],{{refn|Since 1806 Hamburg had been an independent city, the [[Free Imperial City]] of Hamburg; it was annexed to the [[First French Empire]] by Napoleon in 1810.|group=n}} in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, [[Ferdinand David (musician)|Ferdinand David]], would be born.{{sfn|Conway|2012|p=194}} Mendelssohn's father, the banker [[Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy|Abraham Mendelssohn]], was the son of the [[History of the Jews in Germany#In the Holy Roman Empire|German Jewish]] philosopher [[Moses Mendelssohn]], whose family was prominent in the German Jewish community.{{sfn|Conway|2012|pp=147β148}} Until his baptism at age seven, Mendelssohn was brought up largely without religion.{{sfn|Todd|2003|p=33}} His mother, [[Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy|Lea Salomon]], was a member of the [[Itzig family]] and a sister of [[Jakob Salomon Bartholdy]].{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=27β29}} Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister [[Fanny Mendelssohn|Fanny]] also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent.{{sfn|Moscheles|1873|p=98 (vol. I)}} The family moved to [[Berlin]] in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise in fear of French reprisal for the [[Mendelssohn & Co.|Mendelssohn bank]]'s role in breaking [[Napoleon]]'s [[Continental System]] blockade.{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|p=1}} Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children β Fanny, Felix, Paul and [[Rebecka Mendelssohn|Rebecka]] β the best education possible. Fanny became a pianist well known in Berlin musical circles as a composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. But it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to pursue a career in music, so she remained an active but non-professional musician.{{sfn|Conway|2012|pp=27β28}} Abraham was initially disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he was seriously dedicated.{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=115}} Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the [[Salon (gathering)|salon]] organised by his parents at their home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, among them [[Wilhelm von Humboldt|Wilhelm]] and [[Alexander von Humboldt]], and the mathematician [[Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet]] (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry).{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=92, 165}} The musician Sarah Rothenburg has written of the household that "Europe came to their living room".{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|p=29}}
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