Hilmar Meincke

Hilmar Meincke , also Helmer Meincke (born July 17, 1710 in Flensburg , † January 21, 1771 in Trondheim ) was a German merchant.

Life

The Meincke family came from Winten near Minden and moved to Flensburg after the Reformation. Hilmar Meincke's father named Heinrich Meincke (* September 7, 1670; † September 12, 1719) worked in Flensburg as a silk merchant and hospital manager. He was married to a woman named Anna, née von Lutten (* April 10, 1677, † September 14, 1747). Her father Hilmar von Lutten (1652–1722) was a Flensburg council relative and businessman and married to Anna, née Lorentzen (1649–1688).

Meincke's schooling and training are also not documented, as is the time when he went to Trondheim. It is well known that Johann Möllmann (1654–1717) emigrated to Trondheim around 1680 as his maternal great-uncle. Here he built one of the largest trading houses, which his descendants continued. Meincke later married a granddaughter of this grandfather's first marriage.

Meincke had a cousin named Henrich (1697–1755), who acquired Trondheim citizenship in 1725. He also had an older brother named Henrich (1679–1733), who moved to Kristiansund . It is therefore likely that Meincke received help from his relatives during the early days in Norway. In 1740 he bought the Ilsvika country estate near Trondheim, which he then expanded with his son. On May 8, 1741, he received Trondheim citizenship and carried out extensive commercial transactions in the following years. His trading house grew into one of the largest in northern Norway.

Meincke mostly imported grain and brandy. In any case, the contacts to his brother Berent Henrichsen, who had a trading company in Flensburg, helped him. Meincke acquired a large stake in the Trøndelag copper mines and became a major entrepreneur in the publishing system there. He also held shares in the mines of Selbu , Kvikne , Løkken and Røros . From 1751 to 1758 his ships carried 17.6% of the copper exported from Trondheim. He had further shares in an ironworks in Modstadsmarken and a sugar refinery built in Trondheim in 1754. As a shipowner, he had several ship divisions.

When the customs revenues from Trondheim, Kristiansund and Molde were leased in 1749 , Meincke was able to acquire the second largest share of them. In the first ten years he made a profit of 66,000 Reichstalers (0.7 tons of gold according to the name at the time). In 1759 he was appointed chamber councilor. From 1764 to 1768 he transferred the state's customs revenue to Copenhagen as a merchant .

Meincke died at the beginning of 1771. His descendants continued to run the business until the company was dissolved in 1830. The last male descendant was Henrich Meincke, who worked as a large landowner.

Legacy

Meincke was remembered in Trondheim less because of his trading activities, but mainly because of his legacy . In it, he determined 10,000 Reichsmarks that should be used for charitable projects. 3000 thalers of this were to be converted into a family estate. In addition, 3,000 reichstaler were paid for the Røros mine. Meincke had dealt with the social conditions of this plant for his entire life and donated money annually to workers in need. The remaining 4,000 Reichstaler represented the capital stock for a new middle-class secondary school in Trondheim. The educational institution opened in 1778 was the first such school in Scandinavia.

In addition to the bequest, Meincke donated 1,000 Reichstaler in 1774 for the elementary school of the Trondheim cathedral parish.

family

Meincke married on July 27, 1741 in Trondheim Katharina Möllmann (born October 24, 1720 ibid), whose father Thomas Möllmann worked as a businessman in Trondheim and who was married to Christiane Christensdatter Tyrholm. From this marriage there were four daughters and one son. Katharina Möllmann died on February 24, 1748.

After the death of his first wife on April 16, 1749 in Trondheim, Meincke married Sarah Marie Müller (born January 15, 1726 in Christiania ; buried on July 30, 1751 in Trondheim). She was the daughter of the Trondheim merchant and city major Anthoni Müller and his wife Anna, née Collett. The couple had a daughter and a son.

literature

• Knut Sprauten: Meincke, Hilmar . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 231-232.