PODCAST. The conspiracy fantasy around the Rothschild dynasty

Control over central banks, influence over presidents… For almost two centuries, numerous conspiracy theories have flourished around the Rothschild family.

Jacob Rothschild, a member of one of Europe’s best-known banking dynasties, died at the end of February at age 87. This businessman, politician and philanthropist is not known to the general public, but the announcement of his death sparked strong reactions within the complosphere.

Barely 24 hours after the announcement of the death of Jacob Rothschild “half a million tweets mentioning it were published and the ten most viral tweets all came from conspiracy accounts“, observes Tristan Mendès France. The American conspiracy theorist Dom Lucre, for example, published on 18 million views.

A dynasty popular with conspiracy theorists for two centuries

Since the 19th century, the Rothschild family has crystallized numerous conspiracy theories. “This is where the Rothschild myth appears” and an “abundant conspiracy literature” around this family, underlines Rudy Reichstadt. The name “Rothschild” then became synonymous with opulence, fortune and success, but very quickly also the thesis of disproportionate influence appeared.

The Rothschilds are thus accused in turn of having financed the world wars, of having participated in the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or even of having sunk the Titanic. Rudy Reichstadt explains that “behind all the great events of this world for two centuries, we try to see the hand of the Rothschilds“.

“One might wonder what the Rothschilds were not accused of”

Even today, the Rothschilds continue to spark wild rumors. Tristan Mendès France notes that on the Google Trends tool the term “Rothschild” experienced its highest peak in the last five years in January 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, the Rothschild family was at the heart of several conspiracy theories, including that according to which it had patented a Covid-19 screening test.

Increasingly popular conspiracy theories

Five years ago, the conspiracy theory according to which the Rothschilds had control over the global banking system was found on the BNP Paribas website. In an article in its online magazine, the sentence “The Rothschild family is at the head of almost all the central banks on the planet” appeared, which was quickly reported and then removed. “We are on a variation of the theme according to which the Rothschild family pulls the strings of the world“, notes Rudy Reichstadt.

Tristan Mendès France believes that this event “shows to what extent conspiracy theories [autour des Rothschild] have penetrated the collective imagination and almost become a popular reference“. Except that behind a certain anti-capitalist and conspiratorial mask, these theses often convey anti-Semitic prejudices.

In this episode, Rudy Reichstadt and Tristan Mendès France also return to the family ties attributed to Emmanuel Macron and the often anti-Semitic connotations of conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild family.

“The conspiracy fantasy around the Rothschild dynasty” is the 63rd episode of Complorama with Rudy Reichstadt, director of Conspiracy Watch, and Tristan Mendès France, lecturer and member of the conspiracy observatory, specialist in digital cultures. A podcast to be found on the franceinfo website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.