Samuel Bleichröder (1779–1855), who came from a Jewish family originally based in Bleicherode, founded an exchange business on Rosenthaler Strasse in the center of Berlin.

Bleichröder subsequently became a significant financier to the Kingdom of Prussia, and in 1845 was also involved in financing the Cologne-Minden Railway Company.

[1] Together with other banks, including Mendelssohn & Co., Bleichröder managed the processing of French reparation payments following the Franco-Prussian War and financed the build-up of the government-owned Prussian state railways.

[2] Until the 1880s, the bank was also, alongside Maurice de Hirsch, the most important German investor in the Ottoman Empire.

It incurred losses in the European banking crisis of 1931, precipitating the merger with Arnhold Brothers that same year.