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Case file

Edward Reichmann

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “oldest of the five reichmann brothers”. Today it says “israeli businessman”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005

Edward Reichmann (b. 1925 ) is the oldest of the five Reichmann brothers, famed for their global business empire.1 Edward was born to Samuel Reichmann a wealthy Vienna merchant of Hungarian origin. The family was lucky to escape Austria before the Nazi invasion leaving the country on the morning of Anschluss to tend to Edward's grandfather David who had suffered a stroke. From Hungary the family made its way to Paris and then the neutral city of Tangier where Samuel established a successful business in currency trading. Edward was the first of the Reichmann's to emigrate to Canada.2 He liked Canada, being attracted by Montreal 's large Jewish community and favourable economic prospects. In Montreal he joined with his brother Louis to found Olympia Floor and Tile , a company that imported tiles from overseas. The business was a success. When Edward's three younger brothers Paul , Albert , and Ralph he convinced them to settle in Toronto and open a branch of the tile company there. In Toronto Edward's three brothers quickly moved in building and property development.3 Edward seeing their success also moved into this industry. Unlike his four other brothers Edward was brash and outspoken and frequently courted the media.4 He also put much energy into building connections with the city's political elite including becoming a close associate of mayor Jean Drapeau . Despite a number of major projects Edward Reichmann's construction ventures did not prosper. Nearing bankruptcy the company only survived through a massive bailout by his Toronto based brothers. Edward felt embarrassed at having to be rescued by his younger brothers and left Canada for Israel . There he again turned to property development, rising to become Israel's fifteenth richest man. These ventures were largely unaffected by the collapse of his brothers' Olympia and York company.

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16973451.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “oldest of the five reichmann brothers”. Today it says “israeli businessman”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '232025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

oldest of the five reichmann brothers

Now

israeli businessman

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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