Belgian financier and philanthropist; born at Mayence in 1808; died at Brussels Feb. 6, 1883. He left his native town when quite young and went to Belgium. Endowed with good judgment, being a tireless worker, and having early become familiar with business operations, he was soon engaged in important financial transactions, in which his mere name and his experience inspired the public with confidence. He opened a bank at Antwerp and another at Brussels, both of which rapidly succeeded. Bischoffsheim was one of the most active founders of the Union du Crédit, instituted in the hard times of 1848, and which since then has been specially serviceable to small traders; of the Comptoir de Prêts sur Marchandises at Antwerp; of the Union du Crédit at Liége; and of the National Bank, of which he was successively examiner and director, and which he saved from imminent failure in 1841, receiving for his services on that occasion the Cross of the Order of Leopold. Bischoffsheim had a high standing in political as well as in financial circles. He was a member of the communal council of Brussels, and for twenty years represented the arron-dissement of that name in the Senate, often advising the ministers of finance.

Bischoffsheim founded several philanthropic institutions; among them, at Brussels, two professional schools for girls, two normal schools, a model school, courses of lectures for women, an association for encouraging study among women, the Educational League, and committees for supplying food and clothing to needy school-children, and a chair of Arabic at the university. He was also actively interested in Jewish philanthropy, and for many years was a member of the Central Consistory.

He received special naturalization papers in 1859 for exceptional services rendered to the state, and he was decorated with many foreign orders. His funeral was attended by all classes of the whole city; the name of the Boulevard de l'Observatoire, where he had lived, was changed to that of "Boulevard Bischoffsheim"; and the community of Watermael-Boitfort placed his bust in the hall where the sessions of the Communal Council were held.S. M. Bl.

French banker; member of the Institute of France; son of Louis Raphael Bischoffsheim; born July 22, 1823, in Amsterdam. He received his early education in his native city, and was then sent by his father to Paris to take a special course preparatory to entering the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, where he was admitted in 1842. On graduating from that school he was appointed inspector of one of the southern railway lines belonging to the system controlled by his father, and remained in that position until 1873, when he succeeded his father in the banking firm.Genealogy of the Bischoffshelm Family.
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Bischoffsheim in a short time acquired the reputation of a public-spirited man; and his munificent gifts to charitable and scientific institutions won for him the exceptional honor of "grande naturalization," by which, on April 24, 1880, he became a citizen of the French republic.

Attracted by the marvelous advance of astronomy, and deeply interested in that science, Bischoffsheim spared no expense in aiding astronomical institutions and enterprises. The observatories of Paris and of Montsouris owe to him in great measure the excellency of their modern equipment. He has also given his financial support to the observatory established by General Nansouty on the summit of the Pic du Midi.

Bischoffsheim's most valuable contribution to the progress of astronomy, however, was the observatory of Mont-Gras near Nice, one of the largest and best-equipped institutions of the kind in Europe, which he founded with an endowment of 1,500,000 francs. This observatory was formally inaugurated Oct., 1887, and was selected for the meeting-place of the international geodetic congress of that year. The Académie des Sciences sent its most illustrious representatives on the occasion, and later recognized the valuable nature of Bischoffsheim's services to astronomy by electing him member (membre libre) of the Institut de France; while the French government bestowed upon him the Cross of the Legion ofHonor. He received two gold medals at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889: one for his observatory at Nice, the other for his professional school on the Boulevard Bourdon, Paris.

In 1881 Bischoffsheim was chosen to represent the electoral district of Nice in the Chamber of Deputies; but he insisted upon preserving the independence of his political opinions, and as he would attach himself permanently to no political faction, he was not reelected in 1885.

Bibliography: La Grande Encyclopédie;
Paul Guérin, Dictionnaire des Dictionnaires.S. J. W.