John von Berenberg-Gossler

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John von Berenberg-Gossler (born October 22, 1866 in Hamburg ; † July 14, 1943 there ) was a German banker and politician . He was a Hamburg Senator from 1908 and was a member of the Senate until 1920 after the political reforms. From 1920 to 1921 von Berenberg-Gossler was the German ambassador in Rome . He was a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg-Goßler family .

origin

John von Berenberg-Gossler was the eldest son of the head of the banking and trading company Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co (Berenberg Bank), Johann (called John) Berenberg Gossler (1839–1913); Berenberg is a given name . This was originally called John B. in Hamburg . In 1880 the Hamburg Senate approved the name change to Berenberg-Gossler . In 1889 Johann Berenberg-Gossler was raised to the Prussian nobility for his services to the customs connection of Hamburg and was now called von Berenberg-Gossler . In 1910 Johann von Berenberg-Gossler was raised to the Prussian baron status, but the use of the title was tied to the ownership of the family entails commission . The Prussian ennoblement of John von Berenberg-Gossler took place at the same time as that of his father. His Hanseatic aunt Susanne, married Amsinck , exclaimed in shock: “ But John, our good name! " 

Life and politics

Berenberg-Gossler attended the Johanneum School of Academics and graduated from high school. In the following years he successfully completed a banking apprenticeship in Hamburg. From mid-1887 to 1888 he did his military service as a one-year volunteer . Berenberg-Gossler then worked for two years at Gossler & Co. in Boston , a subsidiary of Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co, which mainly traded in sugar. After a long stay in South America, he returned to Hamburg. He joined his father's company in 1892 and became a partner in 1893 .

In 1893 Berenberg-Gossler married Anna Lisette (1870–1928) b. Stammann, a granddaughter of the architect Franz Georg Stammann . This resulted in family relationships with Senator Johann Otto Stammann and, more importantly, with Mayor Johannes Versmann , who was married to an aunt of Anna Lisette, Thekla. His only daughter Anna married a son of Mayor Max Predöhl in 1919 .

In 1904 von Berenberg-Gossler was elected to the Hamburg parliament, to which he belonged until 1908. On February 20, 1908, von Berenberg-Gossler was elected to the Senate . This happened against the will of his father, who then excluded him from the company succession. His younger brother Cornelius Freiherr von Berenberg-Gossler (1874–1953) inherited the bank instead. He also had to give up his partnership with Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. From 1904 to 1943 von Berenberg-Gossler was a member of the supervisory board of the Hypothekenbank in Hamburg . In the ranking list of wealthy people from Hamburg published in 1912, Berenberg-Gossler was roughly 94th with a fortune of 3.8 million marks.

On June 23, 1912, Berenberg-Gossler was a member of the board of the Hamburg Racing Club, together with his friend Alfred Otto Stammann, in the so-called " Hamburger Turfaffair ", as a result of which Berenberg-Gossler and later Stammann met Walther Count v. Königsmarck delivered a pistol duel on September 12, 1912. Berenberg-Gossler was unharmed, but was subsequently sentenced to three months' imprisonment, but later pardoned.

His father died on December 8, 1913. He was buried in the old Niendorf cemetery in Hamburg. On the bronze tombstone is John Freiherr Berenberg-Gossler , not his real first name Johann .

From November 1914 to May 1916, Berenberg-Gossler took part in the First World War.

On March 27, 1919, the previous Senate resigned as a whole. In the following election, von Berenberg-Gossler was re-elected on March 28, 1919 with votes from the SPD . He belonged to this new Senate (→ Hamburg Senate 1919–1933 ) as a non-party building senator until September 22, 1920.

On August 27, 1920 he was called up to serve at the Foreign Office, and on October 1, 1920 he took up the post of German Ambassador in Rome. On November 5, 1920, he received the credentials from the Italian government. He served as ambassador until December 23, 1921, Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath was his successor. On December 29th, he was discharged from service in the Reich.

From 1923 to 1925 he was chairman of the Hamburger Bank from 1923 , which tried to provide a stable currency based on US dollars in the era of hyperinflation in 1923 . He also worked as a commercial judge and held a number of positions on the supervisory boards of various companies, for example HAPAG or Dresdner Bank . In 1930 he was elected senior elder in the parish of Sankt Petri and was a member of the senior elders' college until his death. He was a board member of the nationalist Hamburg National Club . At the beginning of 1933, the Hamburg DNVP brought him up for discussion as the non-party First Mayor of a legal senate made up of DNVP, NSDAP , DVP and the state party . The NSDAP, however, insisted on their candidate Carl Vincent Krogmann .

Like their father, John von Berenberg-Gossler and his brother Cornelius Freiherr von Berenberg-Gossler are buried in the old Niendorf cemetery in Hamburg.

literature

  • Georg Wenzel: German business leader . Life courses of German business personalities. A reference book on 13,000 business figures of our time. Hanseatic Publishing House , Hamburg / Berlin / Leipzig 1929, DNB 948663294 .
  • Herwarth von Schade: John von Berenberg-Gossler . In: On the harmony and welfare of this good city: 475 years of the senior elders' college in Hamburg . Convent, Hamburg 2003, OCLC 53903206 , p. 405 .
  • Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X , p. 115.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated November 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berenberg.de
  2. ^ Renate Hauschild-Thiessen: Nobility and bourgeoisie in Hamburg. In: Hamburgisches Geschlechtbuch, Volume 14, Limburg an der Lahn 1997, p. XXX
  3. ↑ German Gender Book Volume 21, (Hamburgischer Volume 3), Hamburg 1912, p. 435
  4. ↑ 1871-1996 Hypothekenbank in Hamburg, Ed. Hypothekenbank in Hamburg, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3000006605 , p. 158
  5. ↑ see Rudolf Martin (ed.): Yearbook of the wealth and income of the millionaires in the three Hansa cities (Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck), Berlin 1912; Hamburg part, p. 14
  6. ↑ Hamburg Foreign Gazette No. 244 of October 17, 1912
  7. ↑ Berliner Tageblatt No. 322 Morgenblatt of June 27, 1912
  8. ↑ Hamburger Echo No. 147 of June 27, 1912
  9. ↑ Berliner Börsenzeitung No. 294 I. Supplement of June 26, 1912, p. 7.
  10. ↑ Forward No. 145, June 25, 1912
  11. ↑ Grave site in the old Niendorfer cemetery.
  12. ^ Fuhrmann, Rainer: Distribution of offices in the Senate 1860-1945, typescript, Hamburg State Archives.
  13. ↑ Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service: 1871-1945, 2000, ISBN 3506718401 , Volume A - F, p. 115
  14. ^ Christof Brauers, The FDP in Hamburg 1945 to 1953. Start as a bourgeois left party. , Martin Meidenbauer Verlagbuchhandlung, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89975-569-5 , page 85.
personal data
SURNAME Berenberg-Gossler, John von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berenberg-Gossler, Johann von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician, MdHB, senator, German ambassador in Rome, banker
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1943
Place of death Hamburg