George Merck

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Georg (e) Merck
Frederike and Georg Merck Christmas 1898

George Friedrich Merck (born August 15, 1867 in Darmstadt as Georg Merck ; † October 21, 1926 in New Jersey ) was a German-American entrepreneur and founder of Merck & Co.

Life

Georg Merck was the youngest of two sons of Wilhelm Merck and his wife, Caroline "Lina", née Moller, (1841–1909) from Darmstadt . His grandfather was Emanuel Merck, the founder of the business association E. Merck (now Merck KGaA ) in Darmstadt.

Georg did a three-year apprenticeship as a businessman in a drug wholesaler in Frankfurt am Main . He continued his education in France , England , the United States and Canada . In 1889 he acquired a stake in E. Merck. When they were looking for a local governor from the family for the newly founded subsidiary in the United States, Georg Merck and his wife Frederike, née Schenck (1856–1943), moved to New York in 1891 and founded the trading company Merck & Co. there in 1902 Georg Merck took on the US citizenship and changed his first name to George . A year later, the company he ran began producing various chemicals and drugs. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, George Merck gave the Alien Property Custodian 80% of the shares in Merck & Co., exactly the shares held by the business association E Merck were held. He kept his stake in the company. This ended the business relationship between the German parent company and its US subsidiary, which now became an independent and independent company Merck & Co. with immediate effect .

The Alien Property Custodian sold after the war, the 80 -% - share of Merck & Co. worth 3 million US dollars to a group of investors that George Merck were close. A trust agreement was signed in order to exclude possible influence or even control by the German E. Merck . In 1919 Georg Merck regained full control over the fully publicly owned company.

A year before his death, he handed over management to his son George W. Merck (1894–1957). In addition to George W., George Merck and his wife had the children Elsbeth (1895–1936), Linn (1897–1996), Olga (1902–1987) and Magda (1905–1974).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ MN Lurie and M. Mappen Encyclopedia of New Jersey. Rutgers University Press, 2004, p. 887. ISBN 0-813-53325-2
  2. ↑ K. Lee: Trouncing the Dow: a value-based method for making huge profits. McGraw-Hill Professional, 1998, p. 126. ISBN 0-070-38301-4 restricted preview in the Google book search
  3. ^ JE Lesch: The German chemical industry in the twentieth century. Verlag Springer, 2000, p. 305. ISBN 0-792-36487-2 limited preview in the Google book search
  4. ↑ Merck & Co., Inc. quoted from: International Directory of Company Histories. Volume 34, St. James Press, 2000.

Web links

Commons : Georg Merck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Merck, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merck, George Friedrich (full name); Merck, Georg (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1926
Place of death New Jersey