From the significant Jewish philosopher of the Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn, to the great composers Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, from Dorothea Schlegel, née Mendelssohn, to the business magnate Franz von Mendelssohn and the prominent banker and collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Julius H. Schoeps writes a vividly colorful and lively biography of this family and their fate. Schoeps systematically presents the branches of the Mendelssohn family for the first time, depicting their history as bankers and entrepreneurs with an international reach extending to Russia and Estonia, examining their unique role as collectors and patrons, and describing the decline of the family forced by the Nazis in previously unknown details. This is made possible by access to numerous unpublished documents and materials from private estates and archives.