Editing Rothschild family (section)

==Changes to family fortunes==
The [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies|Neapolitan]] Rothschilds was the first branch of the family to decline when revolution broke out and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] captured Naples on 7 September 1860 and set up a provisional Italian government. Because of the family's close political connections with Austria and France, {{Interlanguage link|Adolphe Carl von Rothschild|fr|3=Adolph Carl von Rothschild}} was caught in a delicate position. He chose to take temporary sanctuary in [[Gaeta]] with the last Neapolitan king, [[Francis II of the Two Sicilies]]. However, the Rothschild branches in London, Paris, and Vienna were not prepared nor willing to financially support the deposed king. With the ensuing [[Italian unification|unification of Italy]], and the mounting tension between Adolph and the rest of the family, the Naples house closed in 1863 after forty-two years in business.

In 1901, the German branch closed its doors after more than a century in business following the death of [[Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild|Wilhelm Rothschild]] with no male heirs. It was not until 1989 that the family returned to Germany, when N M Rothschild & Sons, the British branch, plus Bank Rothschild AG, the Swiss branch, set up a representative banking office in Frankfurt.

By the start of the 20th century, the introduction of national taxation systems had ended the Rothschilds' policy of operating with a single set of commercial account records, which resulted in the various branches gradually going their own separate ways as independent banks. The system of the five brothers and their successor sons all but disappeared by [[World War I]].<ref>''House of Rothschild : Money's Prophets: 1798–1848'' by Niall Ferguson. Viking Press (1998) {{ISBN|0-670-85768-8}}</ref>

The rise of [[Nazi Germany]] in the 1930s led to a precarious situation for the Austrian Rothschilds under the [[Anschluss|annexation of Austria]] in 1938 when the family was pressured to sell its banking operation at a fraction of its real worth. While other Rothschilds had escaped the Nazis, [[Louis Nathaniel von Rothschild|Louis Rothschild]] was imprisoned for a year and only released after a substantial ransom was paid by his family. After Louis was allowed to leave the country in March 1939, the Nazis placed the firm of [[S M von Rothschild]] under compulsory administration. Nazi officers and senior staff from Austrian museums also emptied the Rothschild family estates of all their valuables. Following the war, the Austrian Rothschilds were unable to reclaim much of their former assets and properties.

Later, the [[Battle of France|fall of France]] during the [[Second World War]] led to the seizure of the property of the French Rothschilds under German occupation. Despite having their bank restored to them at the end of the war, the French Rothschilds were powerless in 1982 as the family business was [[nationalised]] by the socialist government of newly elected President [[François Mitterrand]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/business/worldbusiness/14rothschild.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Baron Guy de Rothschild, Leader of French Arm of Bank Dynasty, Dies at 98|date=14 June 2007|access-date=12 February 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308193445/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/business/worldbusiness/14rothschild.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In addition, ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that the Rothschilds "grossly misjudged the opportunities directly across the Atlantic" and quoted [[Evelyn de Rothschild]] as saying that despite the accomplishments made by the various branches of the family in international high finance for over 200 years, "we never seized the initiative in [[United States|America]] and that was one of the mistakes my family made."<ref>{{cite news |first=William H. |last=Meyer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/magazine/meagdealer-for-the-rothschilds.html?pagewanted=all |title=Meagdealer For The Rothschilds |work=The New York Times |date=4 December 1988 |access-date=21 May 2014 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=22 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522135743/http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/magazine/meagdealer-for-the-rothschilds.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref>