Who are they and why are they famous?

The Wallenberg’s are Sweden's most powerful financial family. Just over 150 years ago André Oscar Wallenberg started literally minting it when he established Stockholms Enskilda Bank. Since then the family's power has become almost regal in its scope. In fact one of them, Marcus "district judge" Wallenberg, was a Knight of the Order of the Seraphim.

The family has formed a seemingly unbreakable bond with the Swedish economy. In 1916 they set up Investor, an investment company with a major interest in Scania, Ericsson, Saab, ABB, Electrolux, AtlasCopco, AstraZeneca, and a ridiculous number of others besides.

Anyway, why are these Wallenbergs in the news?
National broadcaster SVT has just run a three-part documentary on the family, which has planted bums firmly on seats all over the land.

Why? They just sound like a bunch of suits with visible history stains.
Ah yes, but these particular suits constitute the very fabric of Swedish society. And they very rarely give interviews. If we look at Sweden as being divided between state and capital, they have supplied das Kapital.

And the Social Democrats have been der Staat?
Precisely. And since we've come over all German, it's probably worth mentioning that the Wallenbergs have a Second World War hero in their ranks. While off on business trips to the continent Raoul Wallenberg was soon confronted with the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany. In Budapest he acquired diplomatic status and saved thousands of Hungarian Jews by issuing them with false protective passports and claiming they were awaiting repatriation to Sweden.

Nice work! Was he treated as a hero when he returned to Sweden?
Unfortunately he never did return. He was arrested by the advancing Soviet forces, who took him to be a US spy. He was never seen again.

A tragic end...
Indeed, and there are other tragic tales too. Remember the bank that began the family fortune?

Yes.
Well, Marc Wallenberg was its chief executive when, in 1971, it was to be merged with another bank to form what is now SEB. Marc committed suicide that same year, possibly because the onus on him to perform became too great. His father, Marcus "Dodde" Wallenberg had pushed the merger through against his wishes.

Dodde seems to have been a central Wallenberg.
Yes, he was. He was also a dab hand at tennis and competed for the Swedish Davis Cup team in the mid-1920s.

Good for Dodde. Are there any other Wallenbergs with silly nicknames?
Oh yes, tons of them. There was Jaju (Jakob) for example, who was Dodde's older brother. Both were involved in "the Bosch Affair" at the end of the Second World War, which led to them being accused by the USA of collaborating with Nazi Germany. The SVT documentary gives the brothers the benefit of the doubt on this score, particularly Jaju, whose name was mud after the scandal broke.

As if it wasn't bad enough being called Jaju! Any more?
Yes. There's Pirre (Peter), of course, born in 1926 and still a major power broker in what is commonly known as "the Wallenberg sphere". Then there's his son Poker (Peter), who's on the board of Investor. And Husky (Marcus), who is chairman of the board of SEB.

…

What's going to become of them now that they have been giving an airing on the telly?
They will probably return to the motto that has served the family so well over the years: Esse non videri - to be, not to be seen.

Seraphim in the Book of Enoch
The 2nd-century BC Book of Enoch also mentions the Seraphim, but the term used is the Greek drakones (δράκονες meaning "serpents"). Enoch was never accepted in the Hebrew canon, but it was widely read and quoted by early Christians -- most notably in the Epistle of Jude, which was included in the New Testament canon. From the usage of the word "saraph" in this late text, Christian exegesis identifies as seraphim the snakes responsible for the deaths of the blaspheming Israelites in Numbers chapter 21:"And the LORD sent fiery serpents. And the LORD sent fiery serpents (Sraphim, in hebrew)".

Elaborating upon the Christian celestial hierarchy that was created by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the expanding modern literature of angelology has assigned many names to the unnamed seraphim.

• Seraphiel
• Metatron
• Uriel
• Nathanael
• Gabriel
• Jehoel
• Chamuel (Kemuel, Shemuel)
• Lucifer
• Satan
• Abaddon
• Asmodeus
• Astaroth
• Leviathan
• Samael
• Semyazza

The collar of the Order is in gold, with eleven double crosses enamelled in blue and eleven seraphim.

The badge of the Order is a white-enamelled gilt Maltese Cross, with a gilt double cross on each arm of the cross, and gilt seraphim between the arms of the cross. The obverse central disc is in blue enamel, with a white-enamelled "IHS" Christogram amongst Three Crowns; beneath this are three nails with which Jesus Christ was crucified. The reverse central disc is also in blue enamel, with white-enamelled letters "FRS" (Fredericus, Rex Sueciae, Frederick King of Sweden). The badge is topped by a gilt crown.

The star of the Order is the same as the obverse of the badge, except the crosses and seraphim are in silver and without enamel, and is not topped by a crown.

The ribbon (sash) of the Order is pale blue.