GERSON VON BLEICHRODER was a banker to German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
Background
His father Samuel ran an exchange office and an agency for the redemption of lottery tickets, eventually becoming a merchant banker. Born in Berlin, Gerson entered his father’s business in 1839, became a partner in 1847, and succeeded his father as head of the firm in 1855.
Career
Exploiting the ties his father had made with the Rothschilds, he formed syndicates with other banks to establish investment companies. He became involved in the metallurgical industry and in railroads, being appointed official banker to the Cologne-Minden and Rhenish railroads.
In 1859 Bleichroder became the cofounder of a syndicate to finance Prussian mobilization during the Franco-Austrian war.
Bleichroder’s relationship with Bismarck, which was to last over a period of nearly thirty years, began when the latter made Bleichroder his personal banker. The association was strengthened when Bismarck was elected premier in 1862, Bleichroder becoming his confidant and financial adviser. The Bleichroders came to be regarded as the greatest banking house in Berlin. Bleichroder enjoyed the high esteem of the College of Elders of Berlin Merchants and of King William, who repeatedly requested his advice on financial matters.
Throughout the Franco-Prussian War, Bleichroder used his connections with bankers in France (especially the house of Rothschild) to act as a go-between and carried out missions of the greatest secrecy. He also acted as paymaster for the 300,0 French soldiers imprisoned in Germany.
In 1870 the king appointed him treasurer of the Wilhelm-Stiftung fund for aid to wounded or sick soldiers. At the end of the war in 1871, Bleichroder joined Bismarck in Versailles to help arrange payment of France’s indemnity. Bleichroder undertook the reorganization of the Silesian coal complex, and developed interests in the mining industry.
He had investments in nearly every country in Europe and elsewhere, enabling him to play a significant role in German foreign affairs. He was involved in the expansion of German colonization.
Gerson von Bleichroder was awarded numerous decorations throughout his life.
Religion
Bleichroder was proud of his Jewish background.
From the 1860s he was an active member of the Berlin Jewish community and contributed generously to Jewish causes. He took up the cause of Romanian Jewry and successfully attained Bismarck’s support in the struggle to protect them from oppression and discrimination. He orchestrated the lobbying by international Jewry at the Congress of Berlin (1878), where a resolution was passed demanding that Romania extend equal rights to the Jews. The Jews of Jassy wrote a poem likening him to Moses, which he begged them not to publish.