Eduard is described in contemporary biographies of his son, Ernst, as a rich merchant. It appears he supported music.

Thus the noted concert pianist and Beethoven specialist, Artur Schabel, at the conclusion of his studies with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna came in 1898, at the age of 16 years, to Berlin, where “he was accepted in the house of Eduard Cassirer”. He played his first piano evening in the same year in the Bechsteinsaal. 1901, as a nineteen-year old, he gave his debut as a Solist composer with the citizen of Berlin to Philharmoni orchestras and his own piano concert D-Moll. [http://www.adk.de/arturschnabel/ueber.htm]