Carl Hermann Merck
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Carl Hermann Merck (born May 3, 1809 in Hamburg ; † October 16, 1880 ibid) was a Hamburg official and an influential Hamburg politician .
Life
Merck was a son of the businessman and senator Heinrich Johann Merck , and a stepbrother of the entrepreneur Ernst Merck . Two months after his birth, his mother Maria Catharina Danckert died. After initially visiting the Johanneum in Hamburg, Merck moved to the Ernestinum Rinteln in 1825 . He then studied law in Leipzig , Göttingen and Heidelberg and completed his studies in Heidelberg in 1831 when he obtained a doctorate. In Heidelberg he became a member of the Corps Vandalia . Merck had an inherited fortune that allowed him to spend the next eight years traveling abroad. Although he worked for his father's company on the side, he primarily wanted to get to know other countries better, some of which he also lived in for a longer period: England , France , Switzerland , Italy , Greece , Turkey and Egypt . He returned to Hamburg in the late 1830s.
In Hamburg he participated in the founding of the Hamburg-Bergedorfer Eisenbahn company , for whose company he was very committed and whose later takeover by the Berlin-Hamburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft he negotiated. Merck played a leading role in the reconstruction planning and relief efforts in Hamburg after the great fire . In 1843 he was therefore appointed council secretary and four years later elected to the Senate Syndicus . A little later he completely took over the field of foreign affairs , which he held until his death. If the position of the syndic in Hamburg was originally between the mayor and the senator, this was changed with the new constitution of 1861 and the rank of the syndic was downgraded. An exception was made for Merck; he was still entitled to be addressed as magnificence . Merck was an influential figure in the Senate. Although he did not have the right to vote, he largely determined foreign policy for over 30 years. His political attitudes can best be described as Old Hamburg particularism , he was primarily concerned with Hamburg's independence and was therefore extremely reserved towards the Prussian state .
Carl Merck married on July 7, 1841 with Louise Susette Godeffroy (1821–1875). They had four children together. The second son, Carl Hermann Jasper Merck (1843-1891), was Senate Secretary and Senate Syndic.
In 1836, Carl Merck, along with his brother Ernst and a few others, under the leadership of Cesar Godeffroy, was one of the founders of “ Der Hamburger Ruderclub ”, which was merged with the “Germania Ruderclub” almost 100 years later.
Others
In the mid-1850s, Merck acquired the site that would later become the Hessepark and lived in the country estate there in the summer months. In 1876 he sold the site again.
Carl Hermann Merck and his wife Louise are remembered on the collective grave slab of the Merck family in the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery, Ohlsdorf Cemetery .
literature
- Otto Beneke : Merck, Karl Hermann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 405 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ see Percy Ernst Schramm : Hamburg, Deutschland und die Welt , 2nd edition 1952, p. 211 f
- ↑ Paul Th. Hoffmann: The Elbchaussee. Your country estates, people and fates , Hamburg, 1977, p. 271 ff.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merck, Carl Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Merck, Karl Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Senate syndicate and Hamburg politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1809 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 16, 1880 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |