The father settled in Mainz in 1790, quickly becoming the French army supplier and an important member of the Jewish community there.

Louis-Raphaël, the oldest, was forced to abandon his studies at age 14 and began working for Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt (1772–1843), who owned a bank in Frankfurt.

In 1827, Louis-Raphaël opened a new branch in Antwerp under the management of his brother Jonathan-Raphaël, who left the family bank in 1832, after he married Henriette Goldschmidt, sister of Amélie, to move permanently to Brussels.

[3] In 1850, the "Bank Bischoffsheim, Goldschmidt et Cie" officially opened its offices at 26 Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin in Paris.

In those years, Louis-Raphaël assisted Pinard, Hentsch and Paulin Talabot in the creation of a new bank in Paris, thus becoming one of the founders of the Société Générale.