Radde was educated at the Werder Gymnasium in Berlin, where he learned Latin from Karl Gottlob Zumpt, Greek from Philipp Karl Buttmann, Sanskrit from Franz Bopp, mathematics from Christian Gottlieb Zimmermann,[4] and theology and philology from August Ferdinand Ribbeck; he was afterwards an apprentice printer under Julius Starke, printer for Berlin University.

[3] In 1824, Radde began working on Sanskrit books for the printing house Dondey, Dupré & Son in Paris.

In 1831 he moved to London and received support from Lord Brougham, one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review, to begin compiling and publishing.

[3] While Radde seemed to have good opportunities in London, western Europe was in the midst of rebellions and gatherings against aristocratic rule in favor of constitutions and democracy.

The primary agents in this network were the various German aid societies in Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore and German-language newspapers such as the Philadelphia-based Die Alte und Neue Welt (The Old and New World).

J. G. Wesselhoeft, the owner of the nationally distributed Die Alte und Neue Welt (The Old and New World), used his newspaper to support the "information network" he established in the early 1830s.

As a complement to the New York office, he established a "Commissions Bureau" on the Place Louis-Philippe in Le Havre, France.

For a fee, the Continental office provided Germans who were emigrating from French ports with information and advice to simplify their crossing and relocation and offered services such as letter and address forwarding.

When the agency in New York received the specific requirements of an artisan, it provided that individual with "further information through which hand craftsmen and day laborers [could] obtain employment in most cases."

The most amazing aspect of Wesselhoeft’s operation is that it was national in scope and presumably gathered information on job opportunities in every city in which his newspaper had an agent.

One published by Wesselhoft’s German Intelligence Office in New York in June 1836 concluded: "All possible effort will be made to find a position for workers in other professions and crafts within eight days or less.

In 1835 Johann Georg Wesselhoeft sold The Homoeopathist, or Domestic Physician, by Constantine Hering, through his three bookstores in Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York city.

The same fate was suffered by selections made from other classical writers like Schiller, Jean Paul, Körner, Novalis, Uhland, Hölty, Hauff, Spindler, E. T. A. Hoffmann, etc.

He wrote me: "I need immediately the following genuine classics for cash: 100 Schinderhannes [famous outlaw, folk hero], 100 Heilige Genovefa [St. Genevieve], 100 Bayrische Hiesel [Bavarian poachers or highway robbers], 100 Eulenspiegel.

The New-Yorker Staats Zeitung printed a complaint against Radde's "aristocratic insolence," noting that their agents would return unopened any future unpaid shipments.

Radde was an energetic entrepreneur and philanthropist who did not set up his own printing press in America but rather used skilled local printers.

[30] By 1854, a Ludwig publication was "to be had of all the principal Booksellers throughout the United States"[31] "Homeopathic books and materia medica were the most profitable specialties pioneered and cultivated by Wesselhöft and his associates.... For most of the nineteenth century German-American firms dominated this market.

[34] Bloodletting and "purging" (induced vomiting) were mainstream medical practices for such illnesses as cholera and yellow fever.

"[54] In 1870 he published Polyglot Pocket-Manual with English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese words and phrases for "Students, Businessmen and Travellers.

"[55] Beginning in the late 1840s, Radde developed communities in Brooklyn,[56][57][58] Queens,[59] Potter County, Pennsylvania,[60][61] and possibly Tennessee.

His acceptance was expeditious: in contrast, in 1838, "Mr. Charles M. Burkhalter, who has belonged to the Society for 45 years, and is its oldest member, was admitted to membership.