Hermann Gossler (21 August 1802 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, – 10 May 1877 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg lawyer,

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

(1842–77) and First Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (i.e. the city republic's

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

) in 1874. He was Second Mayor in 1870, 1871 and 1873. During much of his tenure as senator and his first term as Second Mayor, Hamburg was a fully sovereign country, while after 1871, the First Mayor as head of state of republican Hamburg was equal to the

federal prince Federal prince (, "Princes of the Federation") was the generic term for the royal heads of state (monarchs) of the various states making up the German Empire, with the exception of the states that were republics and Alsace-Lorraine which had a spec ...

s (''Bundesfürsten'') within the German Empire. As a senator, he also served as Lord of Police (Polizeiherr), the equivalent of a Minister of Police. He belonged to the

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

Berenberg-Gossler banking dynasty and was a son of the banker and senator Johann Heinrich Gossler (1775–1842), co-owner of Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co, and the grandson of

Johann Hinrich Gossler Johann Hinrich Gossler (18 August 1738 – 31 August 1790) was a German merchant and banker. He was married to Elisabeth Berenberg (1749–1822) and succeeded his father-in-law Johann Berenberg as head of the Berenberg & Gossler company, that ...

. His side of the family was stripped out of their Bank stock and sent to exile to Latin America. Hermann Gossler studied law at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

, and worked as a lawyer in Hamburg from 1826 to 1837. He became Senate Secretary (roughly comparable to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) in 1837. From 1838 to 1842, he was ''Secretarius'' of the High Court. In 1842 he was elected Senator. He was the father of ''Emilie (Emmy) Helene Gossler'' (1838–1910), married to banker Georg Heinrich Kaemmerer.Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Nr. 27, 1914, S. 73

Literature

* Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Band 19, (Hamburgischer Band 2), Hamburg 1911, S.29

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gossler, Hermann Mayors of Hamburg Senators of Hamburg (before 1919) Hermann Grand burghers of Hamburg 1802 births 1877 deaths