- Baroness Fanny von Arnstein
) was a leader of society in Vienna.
Fanny Arnstein was born the daughter of
Daniel Itzig , and was a member of the extensive and influentialJewish Itzig family .She married the banker Nathan Adam von Arnstein, a partner in the firm of "Arnstein and Eskeles"; her sister Caecilie (Zipperche) was married to the other partner,
Bernhard von Eskeles . They brought the social influences of the Berlin of their period, notably the concept of the intellectual salon, to the Vienna ofJoseph II . The Arnstein mansion at Vienna and hervilla s atSchönbrunn andBaden bei Wien were regularly used for hospitality. She was also involved in charitable works.During the
Vienna Congress the Arnstein salon was frequented by celebrities includingWellington ,Talleyrand ,Hardenberg ,Rahel Varnhagen and her husband, theSchlegel s,Justinus Kerner ,Karoline Pichler , andZacharias Werner . She was one of the founders of the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde " and was herself a sklled musician.In 1814, Fanny von Arnstein introduced a new custom from Berlin, hitherto unknown in Vienna: the
Christmas tree .Her only daughter, Henrietta, Baroness Pereira-Arnstein, was also a skilled musician and a regular correspondent of her cousin, Lea Salomon, wife of
Abraham Mendelssohn and mother of Felix andFanny Mendelssohn (who was named after Fanny Arnstein).Bibliography
*
Varnhagen von Ense , "Ausgewählte Schriften", xvii. 328-335;
*Encyclopaedia Judaica See also
*
Itzig family
*Palais Arnstein
*Bernhard von Eskeles
*Salon of Berta Zuckerkandl
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