Joachim Edler von Popper - Biography

Joachim Edler von Popper (20 October 1722 – 11 May 1795) was Court Jew to the Habsburgs.

He was born Chajim (Chaim) Popper in Březnice (Breznitz), Bohemia (currently in the Czech Republic). He was the son of Wolf Popper, Primator (Chief Judge) of the Jews of Bohemia.

Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor had a monopoly on tobacco in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Leopold divided the monopoly into leases awarded to Joachim, Israel Edler von Hönigsberg (born Israel Hönig), and Salomon Dobruschka.

On 27 May 1790 Joachim was ennobled as the first "Edler von Popper." He was the second Austrian Jew to be ennobled as a Jew. In other words, he did not have to convert to Catholicism or be baptized in order to be ennobled.

Joachim founded the bet ha-midrash in Prague with Israel Fränkel, and funded the building of the Popper Synagogue.

Joachim did not have any children, but adopted Simon Popper, who inherited his title as Simon Edler von Popper (Joachim Edler von Popper was actually his paternal grandfather's 1st cousin). He also adopted his nephew Abraham Löbl Duschenes, who inherited his title as Andreas Josef Edler von Popper.

• Samuel Krauss: Joachim Edler von Popper. Ein Zeit- und Lebensbild aus der Geschichte der Juden in Böhmen. Wien (Vienna) 1926.
• Cecil Roth, Geoffrey Wigoder, Raphaël Posner, Louis I. Rabinowitz: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Detroit 2007, vol. 13, p. 861.
• Heinrich Schnee: Die Hoffinanz und der moderne Staat; Geschichte und System der Hoffaktoren an deutschen Fürstenhöfen im Zeitalter des Absolutismus. Nach archivalischen Quellen. 1953. p. 325
• Narodni Archiv (Czech National Archives): Soupis zidovskych rodin v Cechach z roku 1793 III. Praha (Prague) 2003