Johann Michael Hudtwalcker

Johann Michael Hudtwalcker, oil painting probably by Charles Lemonnier

Johann Michael Hudtwalcker (born September 21, 1747 in Hamburg ; † December 14, 1818 there ) was a Hamburg merchant and supporter of the Enlightenment .

Life and meaning

"Hudtwalckersäule" on the Ohlsdorf cemetery

"Johann Michael Hudtwalcker", collective grave Senators I, Ohlsdorf cemetery

Johann Michael Hudtwalcker came in 1747 as the son of Oberalten Jacob Hinrich Hudtwalcker (born November 20, 1710 Altona ; † October 28, 1781 Hamburg) and Sarah Hudtwalcker, née. Ehlers, to the world. His father, himself the son of a cheese merchant in Altona, had founded the company "Hudtwalcker & Co." in April 1743 after an apprenticeship with the herring, oil and fish product dealer Meinert von Winthem, which specialized in trading in fish oil. After his confirmation, Johann Michael joined his father Jacob Hinrich's office and was far more enthusiastic about his work there than about attending school at the Johanneum in Hamburg . On June 21, 1775 he married Elisabeth Moller , with whom he fathered a total of nine children. After his father's death in 1781, he continued to run the trading company under sole responsibility. On January 18, 1788, Hudtwalcker was elected to the Hamburg council and was, among other things, landlord for Hamm and Horn . On May 30, 1814, he resigned from his position as councilor for reasons of age and illness and died four years later at the age of 72.

The Hudtwalckertwiete and Hudtwalckerstraße in Hamburg-Winterhude are named after him. Martin Hieronymus Hudtwalcker and Nicolaus Hudtwalcker were his nephews and Christian Martin Hudtwalcker was a brother.

After the death of his wife in 1804, Johann Michael Hudtwalcker had a grave column erected in what was then the St. Catharinen churchyard, today next to the Hudtwalcker family grave in Hamburg's Ohlsdorf cemetery , site plan: W21.

In the Ohlsdorf cemetery, the collective grave plaque of Senators (I) from the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery commemorates Johann Michael Hudtwalcker, among others.

Ethical and moral views

Even in his youth, Hudtwalcker found poetry by reading Gellert and Hagedorn . As a member of the circle of friends that had formed around Georg Heinrich Sieveking , he came into contact with the ideas of the Enlightenment. Hudtwalcker's strongly socially influenced mindset aimed at an education for self-help while at the same time leading an exemplary lifestyle. As a member of the Patriotic Society , he was committed to the promotion of charitable status, which he saw as the practical implementation of his ethical and moral goals. Together with his childhood friends Sieveking and Voght , he belonged to those parts of the Hamburg upper middle class who spread the ideas of the Enlightenment in Hamburg and northern Germany.

Works (selection)

• Song of an old mountain Scot. Sung on the wedding anniversary of the Demoiselle Louise Friederike Harz and Pastor Klefeker , Hamburg 1772
• To Mademoiselle Elisabeth Moller, tomorrow my wife , Hamburg 1775
• On the happiness of domestic life , Hamburg 1776 - Read aloud to the friendly literary society in Hamburg on January 23, 1776
• A few more fragments about luxury, civic virtue and civic welfare , in: negotiations and writings of the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades, Volume 4, pp. 183-196
• Comments from Senator Hudtwalcker , in: Contributions to the assessment of a price question about the influence of trading cities on neighboring states, Hamburg 1798, pp. 85-96 - Also printed in: Negotiations and writings of the Hamburg Society for the promotion of the arts and useful trades, volume 5, pp. 181-192
• A text about Georg Heinrich Sieveking's death , in: Johann Georg Büsch, To the memory of my friends Dorner and Sieveking, Hamburg 1839, pp. 42–46
• Elisabeth Hudtwalcker, b. Moller. Died November 22nd, 1804. A biography , Hamburg undated
• Notes about the script: Wishes for Hamburg's rebirth. With an appendix , Hamburg 1814

literature

• Oscar L. Tesdorpf (Ed.): Communications from the handwritten estate of Senator Johann Michael Hudtwalcker, born September 21, 1747, died December 14, 1818 , in: Zeitschrift des Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte Vol. 9 (1894), p. 151 –181 - Hudtwalcker's memoirs, written between 1795 and 1811, only go back to 1763, but give a clear picture of Hudtwalcker's youth.
• Margarethe Elisabeth Milow : But I don't want to grumble. Volume 1: Memoirs. Edited by Rita Bake and Birgit Kiupel, Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-926174-04-8 - The memoirs of Hudtwalcker's sister Margarethe (1748–1794) were discovered by chance in 1986 in the Milow family's estate in the Hamburg State Archives.