S. M. von Rothschild

The business prospered, financing various Austrian government undertakings where large amounts of capital had to be raised.

The bank played a major role in the building of the country's economic infrastructure including the first rail transport networks.

Because he was Jewish, Baron Louis von Rothschild, head of the bank at the time, was held in prison for a year and only released after a substantial ransom was paid by his family.

After Baron Louis was stripped of his Austrian citizenship and allowed to leave the country empty-handed, in March 1939 the Nazis placed the firm of S M von Rothschild under compulsory administration and then sold it to the German private bank Merck, Finck & Co. in October of that year,[citation needed] and S.M.v Rothschild became E.v.

Nicolai & Co. After the Allies occupied Austria, Louis Rothschild asserted a claim to recover Südosttextil Gesellschaft m.b.H., a company that had been founded by E.v.