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gave birth after his death to their son Bernhard (1753-1839)
who married Cecelia Itzig.
The Arnsteins and Eskeles were involved in clandestine
political intrigues aimed at political revolution, and were active
llluminati. Their main base of operation was the Asiatic
Brethren lodge in Vienna. From there they executed what is
described as the worst piece of legislation leading to Jewish
assimilation, 168 namely the Toleranz-Patent (Edict of
Tolerance) of Joseph II.
The Toleranz-patent intrigue was kicked off by the
appearance of an anonymous expose illustrating the alleged
backwardness of Austrian Jewry. The anonymous authorship
has been ascribed by historians to Bernhard Eskeles. 169 This
led to Joseph ll's Patent of Tolerance on January 2, 1782. In
1788, Joseph 170 ordered the Jews to divest themselves of laws
and customs that ran counter to his "enlightened" imperial
legislation.
Bernhard's sister Lea, meanwhile, was engaged in high
espionage, and was involved in a Prussian spy scandal. 171 She
married Valentin Guenther of the court of Joseph II.
Bernhard's wife Cecelia and her sister, the Baroness Fanny
von Amstein (1757-1818), opened salons and ballrooms that
were the rage of Vienna. The two sisters tried to outdo each
other in extravagant parties and libertine escapades. Fanny
bankrolled Mozart and introduced to Vienna the first Christmas
tree. Cecelia flirted with the llluminatus 172 humanist Goethe.
Her sister-in-law, Lea Guenther, corresponded with Goethe
regularly.
Not to be outdone by Cecelia, Fanny enticed the Count of
Liechtenstein to duel for her honor. He was killed. During the
Congress of Vienna, Metternich, Hardenberg and Talleyrand
danced in her ballrooms, which "became a center of political
intrigue." 173 Her daughter, Henrietta, married banker Heinrich
Pereira (1774-1835), whose family converted to Christianity.
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