Hartwig Hesse

Hartwig Hesse (born December 13, 1778 in Hamburg ; † February 15, 1849 there ) was a German merchant and founder.

Live and act

Hartwig Hesse was the son of Isaac Hesse and Esther Delbanco. His father from Osterode was a cotton broker and money changer and founded the Hesse Newman banking house . Both parents believed that prosperity required. Therefore, in 1804, his father donated 7200  Mark Banco , the interest income of which was to go to widows of the German-Israelite community. His mother donated the same amount after Issac Hesse's death.

Hartwig Hesse initially worked together with his older brother Levin in his father's shop. After his father died on April 13, 1807, the Hamburg broker deputation added him to the list of High German Jewish brokers two days later. After the brokerage was returned on September 14, 1814, Hesse called himself a businessman from then on. Since he was able to travel to Rome in 1820 for further training, it can be assumed that he was successful in business. Hesse was baptized on August 6, 1823 in Westensee , where he might have a summer residence.

Hesse first lived on Admiralitätsstrasse, then on Jungfernstieg before buying house number 37 on the Esplanade . On January 14, 1824, the merchant became a citizen of Hamburg. Following the example of his parents, Hartwig Hesse donated parts of his fortune. He promoted Johann Hinrich Wichern and the Rauhe Haus and in 1834 took over travel expenses for Nikolaus Heinrich Julius study trips to America . Hartwig Hesse took care of widows with children in particular. In 1824 he donated a capital so that they could live free of charge and without regard to religion. From this a widow's monastery was built on state property near the Lübecker Tor in St. Georg , which was expanded to include a building on Stiftstrasse in 1833. These structures were destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in 1953 on the same site as Hartwig Hesse's Widows' Stift . Today the business is run by the Hartwig Hesse Foundation .

In his will, the merchant considered several municipal and church charities. He bequeathed 27 contemporary paintings to the Patriotic Society of 1765 , 16 of which are now in the possession of the Hamburger Kunsthalle .

Honors

In Hamburg, several street and building names are reminiscent of the merchant and founder, who died in 1823. In addition to the Hartwig-Hesse-Haus in Rissen, which was built between 1966 and 1972, the GAGFAH-Hesse-Haus in Steilshoop and the Hesse-Diederichsen-Heim in Barmbek-Nord bear the merchant's name.

In 1865 there was a Hartwig-Strasse in St. Georg, which was renamed Hartwig-Hesse-Strasse in 1899 . During the Nazi era , it was given the current name Wismarer Straße . In 1948 a street in Eimsbüttel was named after Hartwig Hesse.

literature

• Renate Hauschild-Thiessen: Hesse, Hartwig . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 163-164 .