1. The second son of a Jewish banker, Wolff lived and died in Berlin.
16 Facts About Bernhard Wolff
1. 2.
Bernhard Wolff was born in Berlin in 1811, the son of a Jewish banker who lost his assets.
3.
Bernhard Wolff was a physician by training but soon ventured into journalism.
4.
In 1848, a revolutionary year on the continent, and with fellow liberals, Bernhard Wolff founded another newspaper, the National-Zeitung, which would be published until 1938.
5.
Bernhard Wolff was fascinated with the type of business run by Havas and was inspired to do the same.
6.
In Paris, Bernhard Wolff had worked with a fellow Jewish Prussian, in exile for his political positions: Paul Julius Reuter.
7.
Shortly thereafter, Bernhard Wolff was invited to join the initiative, using data from the Berlin stock exchange.
8.
Reuter, already a British citizen, refused and passed the task on to Bernhard Wolff, who was responsible for Scandinavia in the cartel.
9.
Bernhard Wolff maintained its leadership position, facilitated by the cartel, its association with Siemens and the Prussian state.
10.
On June 10,1869, in reaction to a commercial offensive by Paul Julius Reuter, who even tried to buy the company, Bernhard Wolff concluded a strategic association with the Prussian government, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, and formally renamed his agency as Continental Telegraphen Compagnie, its news service being called Continental Telegraphen Bureau.
11.
When Bernhard Wolff returned in 1870, a new and more ambitious agreement would be made: the division of the entire world into exclusive zones for each agency.
12.
Bernhard Wolff's share relied on the fact that Siemens had connected Central Europe with Russia, the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire and Persia.
13.
Bernhard Wolff had a broad, kindly face, was gray-haired, with sharp, lively eyes and a jovial grin.
14.
Bernhard Wolff liked to entertain a wide circle of friends, especially the writers he published, in his old fashioned red living room in Berlin and in the garden house of his home in Pankow.
15.
Bernhard Wolff traveled regularly to the spa at Karlovy Vary for his health.
16.
In 1871, Bernhard Wolff retired from the management of the agency but remained proprietor of the National Zeitung, which his nephew, Dr Jur.