Gysbert van der Smissen (entrepreneur, 1717)

Gysbert van der Smissen (born January 26, 1717 in Altona ; † March 27, 1793 there ) was a German entrepreneur and shipowner.

Live and act

Gysbert van der Smissen was a son of the merchant Hinrich van der Smissen and his wife Maria, née de Voss. His grandfather of the same name , a Mennonite from Braband, had settled in Altona as a white baker in 1677. He grew up in the period after the Swedish fire, in which the Danish king helped people who worked as entrepreneurs with privileges. Altona was only slowly rebuilt; In addition, there were conflicts with Hamburg , which after a short time made business between the two cities difficult. This could have been the reason why Gysbert van der Smissen did not train as a baker, as is usual in the family. In addition, the family's trading house grew. For the second half of 1732 van der Smissen lived in the household of Richard and Susanna How's family friends on Gut Aspley in Bedfordshire and probably learned the English language there. He then received commercial training at How's trading company on Gracechurch Street, London . Van der Smissen had a lasting impact on this period. The How and van der Smissen families had a close relationship for three generations throughout the 18th century.

In 1733 van der Smissen went back to Altona and joined his father's company. In 1736 he made a trip from Cologne , Brussels and Holland to England. After his father died, from July 1737 he and his brother Hinrich managed the company "Hinrich van der Smissen Söhne", which his father left behind. Hinrich was to take over most of the bookkeeping, Gysbert was to represent the company externally. He successfully campaigned for a private road created by his father between Palmaille , Grosse Elbstrasse and the company's strongholds to be renamed "Van-der-Smissen-Allee". The van der Smissen brothers had a master's title from the Altona lottery and cake baker's office, but no bakery training according to the rules of the guild . For this reason they had to leave their businesses to tenants. Instead, they expanded the shipping company. Presumably at the suggestion of the Linnich family, who were related to them by marriage, they invested in “Greenland trips”, ie whaling . According to the Altona ship lists from 1747, “Linnich and the van der Smissen brothers” were the directors of “De Vrifhijd” (Vrijheid; 80 load ) and “Koning David” (98 load). The “Vrijhijd” got stuck in the ice in 1750, whereupon the brothers bought a larger ship to replace it. This ran under the previous name until 1777. The brothers mostly had great success with this ship.

The van der Smissen brothers were the last Mennonite shipowners in Altona. Shipowners and party owners had to take care of the distribution of their whale transport themselves . At the beginning of the 18th century, the Mennonites therefore opened a cooperative-organized drink boiling plant that took care of the exploitation of the animals. In 1750 the van der Smissen brothers held five of eighteen shares in this. In the shipping line, van Smissen worked on a similar model, but took over the management. Around 1790 he had eight ocean-going ships, whose transport capacities accounted for around 10% of all ships stationed in Altona.

Altona authority had already asked van Smissen's father in 1736 to join the Commerz College . He had previously drawn up plans for this body in the building commission. Since he died a little later, he could no longer do anything there. The committee met very seldom and did not appear attractive to von Smissen because of the bureaucratic structure. Therefore, in 1753, he refused a call to represent interests, saying that because of his Mennonite beliefs, he was not allowed to hold any state offices.

In 1752 van der Smissen tried to initiate a weekly meeting of the Altona merchants. In 1760 he co-founded the "Society of Commercierenden" in Altona. In contrast to the Commerz-Collegium, it was a private form of lobby organization that worked out suggestions and submissions and performed the tasks of a stock exchange. The society advocated a new Commerz College. Van der Smissen no longer refused to join the committee and was accepted as a member in January 1762. The college primarily wanted to create its own Altona harbor and commissioned van der Smissen with explorations in July 1763.

Van der Smissen contacted experts, spoke to residents of the coast and measured and sounded out the site himself. In October 1763 he presented a plan to gradually fortify the so-called Hoppenhöfersand, which was west of Van-der-Smissen-Allee. As a less complex variant, he suggested adding groups of duck albums from the Altona fish market to the northeast tip of the sand . Both proposals were not implemented due to the costs, also because this port could not have been used in winter. Van der Smissen left the college in December 1782 at his own request. His company, however, still belonged to the "Society of Commercierenden".

Van der Smissen wanted to increase the creditworthiness of his trading house and tried to increase his influence. Therefore, he cultivated relationships with nobles and made extensive efforts to get representation. During a visit by Friedrich V , who picked up his future wife in Altona in 1743, van der Smissen had a triumphal arch built for him over the portal of Van-der-Smissen-Allee. Friedrich V showed him appreciation, helped him to his second marriage and often invited him to the court. When the king stayed in the duchies, van der Smissen belonged to his retinue and took on debts for it. He was one of the close friends of Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff , whose interests and pietistic inclinations he shared. In addition, van der Smissen maintained regular contacts with other leading Danish families.

Religious work

Van der Smissen was one of the first Mennonites to consciously opt for pietism . August Gottlieb Spangenberg's stays in his apartment in Altona are documented. References to his relationships are the places his son Jacob Gysbert and nephew Hinrich van der Smissen chose on their return from their training trip from England. They had close contacts with revival figures and leading Methodists . They included John Wesley , George Whitefield , Gerhard Tersteegen , personalities from the Halle orphanage and the Moravian Brethren . These contacts were made before the time of the training trip. His son Jacob Gysbert van der Smissen was later one of the leading supporters of the revival movement and the Hamburg-Altonaic Bible Society . He was one of the first members of the German Christianity Society in Altona.

Van der Smissen lived a pietistic charity , but showed himself to be a patriarchal patriarch who gave detailed guidelines. When those in need followed these regulations, he was very generous. In 1786 he traveled with his grandchildren and two nephews to Christiansfeld , where they were enrolled at the educational institution of the Brethren. The following year he visited Oldenburg and East Frisia. In 1789, as a now blind man, he helped the tutor Johann Wilhelm Mannhardt , who wanted to marry his eldest niece Anna (1771–1843).

Van der Smissen took little part in the life of the Mennonite community in Altonas , in which he never held offices. His second marriage certainly contributed to his separation from the community: He intended to marry the sister of his deceased wife and had obtained a positive opinion from Hans zu Rantzau and received a marriage dispensation from the German Chancellery . The preacher of his congregation nevertheless refused the wedding because “we had never seen a case where a man had married his deceased wife's sister, especially if he had woken up children”. Van der Smissen replied with Lev 18,18  LUT . After the preacher did not change his mind, van der Smissen obtained permission from the king to marry in his own house. The preacher Abraham Koenen from Friedrichstadt took over the wedding .

Political opinions

In the field of politics, van der Smissen tended to enlightenment . He sympathized with Bernstorff for reform ideas such as the liberation of the peasants , but spoke out rigorously against rationalist and deist tendencies. Carl Friedrich Hermann Klenze noted that van der Smissen had a violent argument with Johann Friedrich Struensee , whom he had met as the Altona city physician. Van der Smissen was considered a constitutionalist who initially enjoyed the ideas of the French Revolution , presumably because he hoped it would lean towards English parliamentarism. But he was appalled by the violent death of Louis XVI.

family

Van der Smissen married on July 10, 1740 in Altona Helena Linnich (born May 29, 1721 in Altona; † January 9, 1746 there), whose father Jacob Linnich was an Altona merchant. From this marriage came a daughter and two sons, of whom only Jacob Gysbert (or Gilbert) (1746-1829) reached adulthood and continued the business.

In his second marriage, van der Smissen married on June 24, 1747 in Altona Elisabeth Linnich (* October 8, 1724 in Altona; † June 21, 1756), the sister of his first wife. From this marriage came a son and three daughters. The son and the two youngest daughters died young.

literature

• Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 390-393.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 390-391.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 391.
3. ^ Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pp. 391-392.
4. ^ ^{A b c} Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , p. 392.
5. ^ Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pp. 392-393.
6. ↑ Smissen, Jacob Gysbert van der (Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online)
7. ^ ^{A b} Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , p. 393.
8. ^ Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pp. 393-394.
9. ^ Matthias H. Rauert: Smissen, Gysbert van der. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12/2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , p. 390.