Joseph Ludwig Mertens

Joseph Ludwig Mertens , called Louis , (* around 1782 ; † August 10, 1842 in St. Thomas near Andernach ) was a German banker , manor owner and city councilor.

Life

Mertens was the son of a Bonn wine merchant and owner of a Cologne office building. On June 12, 1816, he married the eighteen-year-old Cologne banker's daughter Sibylle Schaaffhausen . The marriage, from which six children emerged in quick succession, was concluded at the instigation of his future father-in-law Abraham Schaaffhausen , who wanted to secure the corporate succession of his Cologne bank . The young couple moved into the Schaaffhausen family's house in Cologne's Trankgasse 21 in August 1816. Mertens took over management of the bank that same year; from 1820 he became a partner. On January 1, 1830, he was replaced early by his brother-in-law Wilhelm Ludwig Deichmann , as his mother-in-law Therese Schaaffhausen thought he was overwhelmed. Looking for a new job, he became a manufacturer in autumn 1832 by buying a tannery that was located in the premises of the former St. Thomas convent in Augstin near Andernach .

Also with the fortune that had come to him through his marriage to Sibylle Schaaffhausen (at the time of the marriage he owned only a fraction of Schaaffhausen's fortune, 6,000 thalers), he acquired the Petersberg domain in 1834 . Sybille Mertens-Schaffhausen had the property expanded into a summer residence, where she spent a large part of her time. (The spouses, very different in character, were not inclined to one another and spent as little time together as possible: he lived mostly in Cologne, she in Bonn.)

Mertens died of dropsy of the breast after a business trip . He is buried in Andernach.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Angela Steidele, Story of a Love: Adele Schopenhauer and Sibylle Mertens , 2012, p. 22
2. ↑ Correspondence with Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen