With the major world markets in mind, Lothar soon recognized the great potential of the New World and as early as 1849 opened a sales office in New York, thus becoming the first German pencil manufacturer to venture across the Atlantic. Six years later he founded a company there, appointing his youngest brother Eberhard to head it. In 1851 and 1855 there followed further branches in London and Paris, in the wake of the Great Exhibitions.
· Walter Hunt patents the safety pin, invented by him
· The Kingdom of Bavaria becomes the first German state to issue a postage stamp
· First performance of Otto Nicolai’s comic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor in Berlin in 1849