Johann Hinrich Gossler (born 18 August 1738 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, died 31 August 1790 in Hamburg) was a German

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

grand burgher Grand Burgher aleor Grand Burgheress emale(from German: Großbürger ale Großbürgerin emale is a specific conferred or inherited title of medieval German origin and legally defined preeminent status granting exclusive constitutional privile ...

of Hamburg, a member of the

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...

Berenberg/Gossler banking dynasty and the owner and head of the firm Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. (Berenberg Bank). He was married to

Elisabeth Berenberg Elisabeth Berenberg (2 December 1749 – 16 January 1822) was a Hamburg heiress, merchant banker and a member of the Berenberg family. She was the last male line member of the Flemish-origined Hanseatic Berenberg banking family in Hamburg, and anc ...

(1749–1822), the only heir of the Berenberg banking family. The

Gossler Islands Gossler Islands () are a group of north–south trending islands in extent, lying west of Cape Monaco, Anvers Island, in the Palmer Archipelago off Antarctica. They were discovered and named by a German expedition under Eduard Dallmann, 1873� ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

are named in honour of his family.

Background

Johann Hinrich Gossler was a son of Johan Eibert Gossler (1700–1776), an accountant and burgher of Hamburg who had bought the office of ''Herrenschenk'' for 10,600 mark, making him master of ceremonies of the Hamburg council. The Gossler family had been burghers and

velvet Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word ''velvety'' means ...

makers in Hamburg at least since the 17th century. The name Gossler appears in the city already in the 14th century, although it is unknown if it is the same family. Gossler's maternal grandfather Jürgen Friedrich Boedecker was a Hamburg merchant and

from 1706, and his great-grandfather Eibert Tiefbrunn was also a prominent Hamburg merchant. A list of his ancestors is included in the ''

Hamburgisches Geschlechterbuch The ''Deutsches Geschlechterbuch'', until 1943 known as the ''Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien'', is a major German genealogical handbook of bourgeois or patrician families. It is the bourgeois and patrician equivalent of the '' Gen ...

''.

Berenberg Bank

At a young age, Johann Hinrich Gossler joined the Berenberg company as an apprentice. The company was involved in

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

ing,

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...

and trade of goods, and had been established by the Dutch Berenberg family in 1590. After seven years, at 22 and having completed his apprenticeship, Gossler left Hamburg to work for a company in Cadiz, and travelled extensively in Spain, Portugal, France and England.

In 1768, he returned to Hamburg, where he married

(1749–1822) in the same year. She was the only daughter of the Berenberg company's surviving owner,

Johann Berenberg Johann Berenberg (born 12 March 1718 in Hamburg, died 2 March 1772 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg merchant banker. He was a co-owner of Berenberg Bank from 1748, with his brother, senator Paul Berenberg, and after the latter's death in 1768 the sole o ...

(1718–1772). Johann Berenberg made his son-in-law a partner in 1769. Upon the death of Johann Berenberg's brother Cornelius in 1773, the Berenberg family became extinct in the male line and Johann Hinrich Gossler became the company's sole owner. In 1788, Gossler took on his own son-in-law

Ludwig Erdwin Seyler Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (15 May 1758 – 26 October 1836; often known as ''L.E. Seyler'') was a German banker, merchant and politician. He was by marriage a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg banking dynasty, and was a partner in the Hamburg firm Jo ...

(married to his eldest daughter Anna Henriette Gossler) as a partner. Johann Hinrich Gossler was the father of Hamburg

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

and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler II (1772–1842) and the grandfather of Hamburg senator and First Mayor

Hermann Gossler Hermann Gossler (born 21 August 1802 in Hamburg, died 10 May 1877 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg lawyer, senator (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 ...

(1802–1877) and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler III (1805–1879). Johann Heinrich Gossler III was the father of Johann Berenberg Gossler (1839–1913). In 1880, the Hamburg Senate granted Johann Berenberg Gossler the name of Berenberg-Gossler, and in 1888, the family was ennobled in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

as ''von Berenberg-Gossler''. In 1910, Johann von Berenberg-Gossler was raised to the

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

ial rank. Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler was the father of

John von Berenberg-Gossler John von Berenberg-Gossler (22 October 1866 in Hamburg – 14 July 1943) was a Hamburg banker, politician and grand burgher. Career He was elected Senator in Hamburg in 1908 and served as German Ambassador to Italy 1920–21. He was a member of ...

(1866–1943), Senator and German Ambassador in Rome.Johann Heinrich Goßler
II, ''

Neue Deutsche Biographie ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (''NDB''; literally ''New German Biography'') is a biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 26 volumes published thus far cover ...

'' Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg were also the grandparents of Betty Seyler (1789–1837), married to businessman

Gerhard von Hosstrup Gerhard Carsten Jakob von Hosstrup (or Hoßtrup) (born 23 April 1771 in Hamburg, died 7 September 1851) was a Hamburg businessman and the founder of the Hamburg Stock Exchange building (Hamburger Börsenhalle). He became ''Oberalter'' in 1843. ...

, Louise Seyler (1799–1849), married to ship broker Ernst Friedrich Pinckernelle, and Henriette Seyler (1805–1875), married to Norwegian industrialist

Benjamin Wegner Jacob Benjamin Wegner (21 February 1795 – 9 June 1864) was a Norwegian business magnate, estate owner and timber merchant. Born in Königsberg, East Prussia, he moved to London in 1819 and to Berlin in 1820, where he established an independ ...

Ancestry

References

Literature

*"Johann Hinrich Gossler", in ''Hamburgische Biografie-Personenlexikon'', pp. 153–154, Volume 2, edited by Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke *

Percy Ernst Schramm Percy Ernst Schramm (14 October 1894 – 21 November 1970) was a German historian who specialized in art history and medieval history. Schramm was a Chair and Professor of History at the University of Göttingen from 1929 to 1963. Early lif ...

, ''Kaufleute zu Haus und über See. Hamburgische Zeugnisse des 17., 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts'', Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe, 1949 *

, ''Neun Generationen: Dreihundert Jahre deutscher Kulturgeschichte im Lichte der Schicksale einer Hamburger Bürgerfamilie (1648–1948)'', Vol. 1, Göttingen, 1963. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gossler, Johann Hinrich 1738 births 1790 deaths German bankers Johann Hinrich Berenberg Bank people Grand burghers of Hamburg 18th-century German businesspeople