Bethel Henry Strousberg was probably one of the most important and influential Prussian industrialists of the 19th century. He set out on his amazing career when he arrived in London from East Prussia as a near-penniless sixteen year old economic migrant. in 1839. In London he worked hard and built a career as a journalist, publisher and insurance expert (marrying a seventeen-year old and going to prison for fraud on the way). Forced to return to Germany, he became a pioneer of the railway construction boom and at his height controlled lines in Prussia, Austria, Hungary and Romania, earning him the nickname of "The European Railway King". His factories, railways, mines and estates employed tens of thousands of workers. Strousberg owned a grand mansion in Berlin, country estates and a castle in Bohemia. Problems caused by poor financial management culminated in his arrest and trial for fraud in Moscow and subsequent bankruptcy. This book traces his rise and fall.