Bleichröder; drawing by David Levine SOURCEMavi Boncuk | from The Holstein[1] Papers. Gerson von Bleichröder[2] arranged Hirsch[3] shares to be transfered to Deutsche Bank in 1886
See also: Turkenhirsch[4]: A Study of Baron Maurice De Hirsch (English edition translated from original Hebrew text. It has mostly secondary sources. MAM)
The Chemins de fer Orientaux (English: Oriental Railway; Turkish: Rumeli Demiryolu or İstanbul-Viyana Demiryolu) (reporting mark: CO) was an Ottoman railway company operating in Rumelia (the European part of the Ottoman Empire, corresponding to the Balkan peninsula) and later European Turkey, from 1870 to 1937. The CO was one of the five pioneer railways in the Ottoman Empire and built the main trunk line in the Balkans. Between 1889 and 1937, the railway hosted the world-famous Orient Express.
The railway was charted in 1870 to build a line from Istanbul to Vienna. Because of many political problems in the Balkans, construction started and stopped and ownership changed or split often. Not until 1888 did the CO complete its objective, but after the First Balkan War in 1912, the railway was limited to only Eastern Thrace. The CO continued operations as a regional railway until 1937, when the Turkish State Railways absorbed it.
Construction of the line was well underway by 1871. Following a government change the same year, the new Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha started to renegotiate the concession to reduce the budget of constructing the line because of the Empire's growing financial problems. The new concession no longer had completion to Vienna as a priority and was signed on 18 May, 1872. Under the new agreement, Hirsch would continue to manage ongoing construction, but the Ottoman government would supervise in building new lines.
The full Constantinople–Vienna main line was opened on 12 August 1888. The CO, along with the Hungarian State Railways and the Bulgarian State Railways - BDZ, inaugurated the first train from İstanbul to Vienna. One of the most famous trains in history, the Orient Express, started her first run from Paris to İstanbul on 1 June 1889. This train was operated by CIWL, an international hotel and logistics company. A railway terminus on the European side of İstanbul, İstanbul Sirkeci Terminal, which was under construction since February 1888, was opened on 3 November 1890.
[1] Friedrich August Karl Ferdinand Julius von Holstein (April 24, 1837 – May 8, 1909) was a civil servant of the German Empire and served as the head of the political department of the German Foreign Office for more than thirty years. He played a major role in shaping foreign policy after Bismarck was dismissed in 1890.
See: The Holstein Papers. Vol. I. Memoirs and Political Observations, edited by Norman Rich and M. H. Fisher (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1955); The Holstein Papers. Vol. 3 (1961)
[2] Gerson von Bleichröder (22 December 1822 – 18 February 1893) was a Jewish German banker. The bank maintained close contacts with the Rothschild family; the banking house of Bleichröder acted as a branch office in Berlin of the Rothschilds' bank. Traditionally, the Rothschilds represented the banking interests of the Austrian-controlled German Confederation in Europe. In the conflict between the rapidly rising and expanding nation of Prussia and the "pro-Austrian" German Confederation, the Rothschild Bank was largely caught in an uncomfortable position in the middle of the conflict.
"Yet even Bismarck treated Bleichröder as a Hausjude when he came to write his memoirs. There is no mention of Bleichröder in the two volumes of memoirs which were published during Bismarck’s lifetime and only a single casual one in the volume published after his death. Nor did the editors of Bismarck’s letters include any to Bleichröder. It seemed that Bleichröder’s story could never be told. Now rich sources have been revealed. The private archives of the family firm found a refuge in New York. They contain thousands of letters to Bleichröder throughout his career—letters from William I and Leopold II, from German ministers and officials, from the Rothschilds, from Disraeli, and from countless political informants. There were also letters from Bismarck’s wife, from his sons and from his secretaries. Bismarck preferred to communicate his views and wishes only in conversation." SOURCE
[3] Baron Maurice von Hirsch auf Gereuth (1831-1896), a Jewish-German financier and philanthropist dedicated his fortune to the welfare of Eastern European Jews at a time when worsening conditions in Russia made mass emigration a necessity. Hirsch's estate, estimated at $100 million by 1890, resulted from his pioneer enterprises in the sugar and copper industries and management of the Turkish railway, which linked Constantinople to Europe.
[4] Turkenhirsch: A Study of Baron Maurice De Hirsch Kurt Grunwald | Transaction Publishers, Jan 1, 1966 - History - 158 pages
Who was "'Turkenhirsch'"whose death, eighty years ago on April 20, 1896, made headlines in newspapers all over the world? Few people today remember more than just the name of the man who was one of the most remarkable personalities of Edwardian Europe, a great and daring entrepreneur whose largest enterprise, the railway to Constantinople, had kept the chancelleries of Europe busy for decades. This enterprise, in the view of some historians, marked the overture to the drama of the Age of Imperialism. Of his philanthropic enterprises, the greatest was the resettlement of oppressed Russian Jews in Argentina, endowments hitherto unrivaled in scope and scale. 'Turkenhirsch'--the nickname under which Baron de Hirsch was known all over the continent of Europe--is of equal interest to the political and economic historian of the nineteenth century, and to the historian of the Jewish renaissance.
Herzl met Baron de Hirsch in Paris. Sunday, 2 Jun 1895