The Goldschmidt-Hameln family was a branch of the Goldschmidt family which fled to the Westphalian town of Hamlin in 1614 following the Fettmilch uprising and its expulsion of the Jews. They later returned to Frankfurt, where they had to reapply for right of residence like foreigners. They were then named after their former town of residence. Their family house after 1648 was the double house Korb und Wanne. Isaac von Hameln founded a moneychanging and jewellery shop there in the 17th century, and under the management of his son Juda Löb Goldschmidt around 1700 it became the finest in the Judengasse. The family had close business links with the famous imperial court factor, Samuel Oppenheimer, in Vienna, as well as with Christian banking houses such as the imperial banker Johann von Moor. Like others of its period, the Goldschmidt-Hameln bank was involved in moneylending and moneychanging, and also in trade, for example in jewellery and armaments.
Following bankruptcies among its business associates and the Judengasse fire in 1711, when the Goldschmidt business house lost all its commercial records, the bank suffered serious losses. Nevertheless, many members of the family continued to be wealthy moneychangers, linked by marriage to the important Frankfurt banking families. In 1783 the banker Salomon Daniel, living at the Schiff, married Gütle Rothschild, the daughter of Amschel Rothschild and sister of Mayer Amschel Rothschild.