An intellectual biography of Ernst Cassirer, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Walter Benjamin. German philosopher and publicist Wolfram Eilenberger—founder and chief editor of Philosophie Magazin—takes a look at one of the great decades of German-Austrian thought: the 1920s. With the careful attention of a microscope, he examines not only the philosophical work but also the lives of four “magicians”: Ernst Cassirer, Martin Heidegger, Walter Benjamin, and Ludwig Wittgenstein—their destinies intricately intertwined amid the twists of a turbulent time between two world wars. This book is unlike any history-of-philosophy textbook, unlike an academic study, and unlike a fictionalized biography. Yet it combines traits of all these genres, convincingly illuminating life and thought through one another.