Paul Reuter

From New World Encyclopedia


Paul Reuter aged 53 years (1869) by Rudolf Lehmann

Paul Julius Baron von Reuter (July 21, 1816 - February 25, 1899) was a German-born British journalist and media owner, the founder of Reuters news agency.[1]

Life

He was born in Kassel, Germany to a Jewish family.[2] His father was a rabbi. His birthname was Israel Beer Josaphat. In Göttingen Reuter met Carl Friedrich Gauss who experimented with the transmission of electrical signals via wire.

On 29 October 1845, Reuter moved to London calling himself Joseph Josephat. On November 16 he converted to Christianity and changed his name to Paul Julius Reuter. One week later on November 23, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus in Berlin. After the failed Revolution of 1848, he fled from Germany and went to Paris and worked there in Charles-Louis Havas' news agency, the future Agence France Presse.

Statue of Paul Reuter in the City of London

In 1851 Reuter moved back to London and set up an office at the London Stock Exchange. Reuter founded Reuters, one of the major financial news agencies of the world.

On 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalized as a British subject.

On September 7, 1871, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha conferred barony on Julius Reuter.

He had two sons, one named George, 3rd Baron de Reuter, and the other named Andre Reuter. His only daughter Clementine Maria married Count Otto Stenbock, and after his death, Sir Herbert Chermside, a governor of Queensland.[3] George, 3rd Baron de Reuter had one successor, Oliver, 4th Baron de Reuter. He had one younger brother named Ronald. The last remaining heir of the family is Marguerite, 4th Baroness de Reuter.

He died in Villa Reuter, Nice, France, and was taken back to London to be buried in the family vault at West Norwood Cemetery.

Work

While telegraphy evolved, Reuter first founded the Reuters News Agency in Aachen which transferred messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons. This was the missing link to connect Berlin and Paris. The carrier pigeons were much faster than the post train, giving Reuter faster access to stock news from the Paris stock exchange. In 1851, the carrier pigeons were superseded by a direct telegraph link.[4]

After the failed Revolution of 1848, Reuter had fled from Germany to Paris and worked there in Charles-Louis Havas' news agency, the future Agence France Presse. Reuter noticed that with the electric telegraph news no longer required days or weeks to travel long distances. In 1850, the 34-year-old Reuter was based in Aachen, Germany, close to the Dutch and Belgian border, and began using the newly opened Berlin–Aachen telegraph line to send news to Berlin. However, there was a 76-mile gap in the line between Aachen and Brussels. Reuter spotted the opportunity to speed up news between Brussels and Berlin by using homing pigeons.

Reuters Data Centre, London.

In 1851, Reuter moved to London as attempts to lay a submarine telegraph cable from Dover to Calais looked to be succeeding, after failures in 1847 and 1850. He set up his "Submarine Telegraph" office in October 1851 just before the opening of the cable in November, and agreed to a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from the continental exchanges in return for access to the London prices, which he supplied to Paris brokers.

In 1865, Reuter's private firm was restructured and became a limited company called Reuter's Telegram Company. Reuter's agency built a reputation in Europe for being the first to report scoops from abroad, such as the news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. A telegraph link was established between Britain and the European continent through the English Channel. This link was extended to the south-western shore of Ireland, at Cork in 1863. There ships coming from America threw canisters containing news into the sea. The news was telegraphed to London, arriving before the ships.

Legacy

Notes

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers. Walker & Company, 2007. ISBN 0802716040

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