Jakob Fugger

Augsburg, 1459 - 1525

The Fugger family was a historically prominent group of European bankers.

The first reference to the Fugger family in the Bavarian Free City of Augsburg is the arrival of Hans Fugger recorded in the tax register of 1357.

Jakob Fugger was born in 1459, and was to become the most famous member of the dynasty. He married Sibylla Artzt in 1498, but they had no children. He was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511, and in 1519, loaned Charles V 850,000 florins to procure his election as Holy Roman Emperor over Francis I of France. Jakob died in 1525. He is considered to be one of the richest persons of all time and today, he is well known as Jakob Fugger “the rich”.

In 1511 Jakob deposited the large sum of 15000 florins as an endowment for some almshouses. In 1514 he bought up part of Augsburg and in 1516 he came to agreement with the city that he would build and provide a number of almshouses for needy citizens. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and the Fuggerei had come into existence. It is still used today.