Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt (politician)

Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt

Reinhardt's grave, Mannheim main cemetery

Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt (born March 8, 1752 in Neuwied ; † March 27, 1826 in Mannheim ) was a German banker, entrepreneur and politician. From 1810 to 1820 he was Lord Mayor of Mannheim.

Life

Reinhardt went to Mannheim in 1767 and completed an apprenticeship in a cloth shop. In 1781 he started his own business and later also traded in grain, tobacco and wine, first in the region and then internationally from Budapest and Königsberg to the Netherlands. From the 1790s he was also active in the money business with the Reinhardt bank and became a lender for the city of Mannheim and the Grand Duchy of Baden . When he was elected mayor in 1810, he received the second highest number of votes. Since the winner renounced the office, Reinhardt became Lord Mayor of Mannheim. During his tenure, Napoleon's continental blockage fell - Mannheim was a border town to France at that time - and the famine of 1816/17, which he was able to alleviate in Mannheim with the help of his company or bank. In 1820 he resigned from his office.

Reinhardt married Barbara Koob (1753-1827) on August 19, 1783 and had two daughters. The older daughter Anna Katharina Reinhardt (* May 16, 1785 † 1852) married a cousin Reinhardt on November 6, 1803, who was also called Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt (banker and wine merchant) (* April 9, 1777 in Neuwied). He moved to Mannheim and continued to run the Reinhardt bank. The younger daughter Katharina Wilhelmine (born October 12, 1787) married Friedrich Ludwig Bassermann . The son Friedrich Daniel Bassermann became one of the most popular politicians in Baden.

The city of Mannheim maintains his grave in the Mannheim main cemetery as a grave of honor . The representative sandstone grave has a truncated pyramid as a base, on it a writing cube and a gable top with corner acroteries . The white marble vase was intended for the deceased's wife, who later died. A garland of fruit is depicted on the front, including a beehive with bees. There are also symbols of the merchant god Mercury, a ship's anchor and palm fronds on the back. The corners of the cube are decorated with angel heads, in the gables the eye of God , on the left an oak wreath, on the right a star wreath. The corner acroteries contain poppy seed capsules.

See also

• List of the Lord Mayors of Mannheim

literature

• Hans Kaiser: Mannheim's Lord Mayor Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt (1752–1826). In: Mannheim history sheets. No. 21. Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89735-690-0 .
• Lothar Gall : middle class in Germany. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-88680-259-0 .
• Friedrich Walter : Mannheim in the past and present. Volume 2: History of Mannheim from the transition to Baden (1802) to the foundation of the empire. 1907. Unchanged reprint: Frankfurt am Main 1978, ISBN 3-8128-0001-2 .
• Andreas Lüneburg : Mannheim and the revolution in Baden. Welz, Mannheim 2004, ISBN 3-937636-82-X .