The mainstream denominations had long given up making predictions by the time of this article. Even the popes hadn't made any for over 700 years. And "a Lutheran clergyman" in 1836 doesn't equate to the Lutheran church.
The trouble with nailing your colours to the mast is that they're up there for all to see. Every breathlessly uttered date of the WT has proven to be false. 1914, 110 years later, is such a joke that many sober thinkers strongly opine that the WT will eventually drop it. The 1955 article is ten years after a second world war since 1914, yet the WT lionizes itself as the sole predicter of the end.
"We're still predicting firm dates while nobody else is" soon becomes a liability.