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Bethel Henry Strousberg

German railway entrepreneur (1823-1884)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ70153 ↗
Source-derived summary

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.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bethel Henry Strousberg” is german railway entrepreneur (1823-1884). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Bethel, Henry and Strousberg, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1823, 1884, 1867, 1868—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1823-11-20, 1823-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Bethel, Henry and Strousberg is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “german railway entrepreneur (1823-1884)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q70153. VIAF identifies the subject as 42612839. The Library of Congress control number is n81106955. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1823, 1884, 1867 and 1868.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bethel Henry Strousberg” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.