Robert Kayser (born 15 January 1805 in

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

; died 27 October 1877 in

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

) was a Hamburg industrialist and banker. As a young man Kayser travelled to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

in 1829 to seek his fortune where, after a while, he went into partnership with Max Theodor Hayn to found the firm Kayser, Hayn & Co. in

Mazatlán Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding ''municipio'', known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of ...

. In 1839 he came back to Hamburg. In 1843 Kayser and Hayn, together with their friend Kunhardt, founded a firm in Valparaíso which foundered in 1849; in the same year Kayser, Hayn & Co. in Mazatlán was dissolved. In 1846 Kayser and his business partners founded the Firm Kunhardt, Kayser & Hayn in Hamburg, which was renamed Kayser & Hayn after Kunhardt's death in 1850. Hayn left the firm in 1854 and the firm was known as Robert Kayser until 1865. Kayser was among the founders in 1856 of the

Norddeutsche Bank The Norddeutsche Bank was a German bank that existed from 1856 to 1929. It was established by Berenberg Bank, H.J. Merck & Co. and the bank house of Salomon Heine and private founders such as Robert Kayser as the first joint-stock bank in norther ...

and was one of its leading lights, putting up founding capital of 500.000 Marks. He belonged to the board of Norddeutsche Bank from 1856 to 1877. From 1850, Kayser belonged to the Chamber of Commerce of which he was president in 1856. He was also a member of Hamburg City Hall from 1859 to 1868 and from 1871 to 1877. His daughter Cornelia was married to Rittmeister Vally

von Blumenthal The von Blumenthal family are Lutheran and Roman Catholic German nobility, originally from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other (unrelated) families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families (quite a few of them Je ...

References

*Wilhelm Heyden: Die Mitglieder der Hamburger Bürgerschaft. 1859-1862, Hamburg 1909, S. 59 *Handelskammer Hamburg: Repräsentanten der Hamburger Wirtschaft: 1850–1950, S. 35, Hamburg 1984 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kayser, Robert 1805 births 1877 deaths German bankers