Bethel Henry Strousberg

Bethel Henry Strousberg (20 November 1823 – 31 May 1884) was a German Jewish industrialist and railway entrepreneur during Germany's rapid industrial expansion in the 19th century. He cemented his social standing with the construction of the Palais Strousberg in Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse, built in 1867–1868 according to plans designed by August Orth, which later became the seat of the British Embassy. Life Baruch Hirsch Strausberg was born at Neidenburg (present-day Nidzica, Poland) in the Province of East Prussia, he changed his first names to Barthel Heinrich whilst attending the Gymnasium (Secondary School) in Königsberg. After the early death of his father, he moved to London in September 1839, where he initially lived with his mother's brother Peter Gottheimer, who jointly owned a fancy goods business with his brother Lesser. A third brother, Berton Gottheimer, was also in London in the same business. Strousberg anglicized his name to Bethel Henry and converted to Christianity. On 13 March 1845, he married Mary Ann Swan at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street. In July 1847, Strousberg was working as an agent for several building societies and entrusted to handle member's payments. For some reason, he took an amount of money and booked a passage to America, but was found out when the steamer had to return to Southampton having loaded the wrong grade of coal. Strousberg was tried, found guilty, and served six months imprisonment with hard labour. A year after his release, the Strousberg's first son, Bethel Henry Jun., was born; and in January 1849, the three of them travelled to the USA returning in April 1850. Their second son Arthur was born in the autumn of that year. By 1854, Strousberg had become a successful publisher and journalist and was also a manager of an insurance company. Socially he was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. By the early 1860s, he had gone back to Germany and embarked on a second career as a railway entrepreneur and industrialist. With good contacts to the Prussian state government and backed by British financiers, he acquired the licence to build the East Prussian Southern Railway line from Tilsit to Insterburg in 1862, followed by the Berlin–Görlitz railway line opened in 1866/1867. He also founded the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway and the Halle-Sorau-Guben Railway companies in 1868.