Bankhaus Mendelssohn

In Berlin, the Bankhaus Mendelssohn welcomes you with a Neoclassical palace, completed in 1893 from designs by Martin Gropius and Heino Schmieden. Its grandeur and symmetry look back to classical antiquity. Under one roof it once held the family's residence and its bank. Joseph Mendelssohn, eldest surviving son of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, founded that bank in 1795.

It began as a trade in money and goods. After a brief spell in Hamburg under French occupation, the bank was back in Berlin by 1811. Through the nineteenth century it grew into one of the largest private banks in the city. It financed new railway lines and placed German and foreign government bonds on the market. Business with the Russian Empire ran on personal ties reaching up to the imperial court. The house also managed the wealth of artists and scholars, among them Alexander von Humboldt and Clara Schumann.

When the Nazis took power in 1933, the end came within five years: liquidation in 1938, its operations passing to Deutsche Bank. Partly destroyed in the Second World War, the palace still stands and houses a company.