Felix Hausdorff`s father was Louis Hausdorff, who was a merchant dealing in textiles, and his mother was Hedwig Tietz; both were Jewish. Felix was born into a wealthy family and this had quite an influence on his life and career since he never had the problem of having to work to support himself financially. Felix was stll a young boy when the family moved from Breslau to Leipzig, and it was in Leipzig that he grew up. At school he had wide interests and, in addition to mathematics, he was attracted to literature and music. In fact he wanted to pursue a career in music as a composer but his parents put pressure on him to give up the idea of becoming a composer. They achieved this, but only after quite an effort for Felix had his heart set on the idea, and after this he turned towards mathematics as the subject to study at university. Hausdorff studied at Leipzig...