There is a consensus in literature about the immense significance of the German nobility well beyond the year 1918. Curiously, however, much has been claimed and very little researched about the nobility of the 20th century. This book caused a stir immediately upon its release and was reprinted twice within six months. Based on a broad range of sources, it presents the first comprehensive analysis of the decline of a centuries-old ruling elite that had stubbornly defended the bastions of its social and cultural power even within the industrial modern era, and not without success. The focus of the investigation is the self-destruction of noble traditions and values, which began in the late Empire with the approach to far-right movements and culminated in extensive collaboration with the Nazi movement.