Valentin Lorenz Meyer
Valentin Lorenz Meyer (born October 23, 1817 in Hamburg ; † March 1, 1901 there ) was a German businessman .
Life and work as a businessman
Valentin Lorenz Meyer was the eldest son of the Hamburg Senator Georg Christian Lorenz Meyer . His father ran a wine shop on Catharinenstrasse on Cremon Island , where Valentin Lorenz Meyer grew up. His brother was Arnold Otto Meyer . Valentin Lorenz began vocational training at the Gleichmann & Busse company, which he completed in 1839 in his father's wine business. Theodor August Behn , a friend from his youth, advised Meyer, who did not want to work permanently in the wine trade, to go to East Asia with him. They intended to set up a trading company there. Meyer then sailed from Bordeaux around the Cape of Good Hope to Singapore , which was under British administration at the time, within 120 days . From Hamburg he had taken references from English merchants and his father's 50,000 mark banco. In Singapore he met Behn, who had left Hamburg earlier. Together they founded the company Behn, Meyer & Co. (today Behn Meyer Holding AG ) on November 1, 1840 . They were the first Germans to set up a successful trading company in Singapore. Together they chartered sailing ships, with which they went to Sumatra , North Celebes , Java , New Guinea and especially China . They benefited from the fact that the largest Chinese ports were open to them under British pressure due to the First Opium War .
Since the opium trade seemed disreputable to them, Meyer and Behn decided not to continue working there. At the end of 1848 Behn traveled back to Hamburg for a longer stay. During this time, Meyer learned that Behn had brought five boxes of opium to China for a business friend. While Meyer saw this as a breach of the agreement made, Behn considered the process to be a trifle. Both got into a dispute with the result that Meyer left the company as a partner on December 31, 1849. Meyer traveled back to Hamburg, where in January 1850 he submitted a marriage proposal to Henriette Sieveking. Meyer married the eldest daughter of the mayor Friedrich Sieveking four months later.
In 1851 the couple went to Liverpool . For moral reasons, Meyer built up a company there to advise and support emigrants to the USA at reasonable prices. He wanted to forestall unscrupulous intermediaries who took advantage of emigrants. Meyer ran the business for five years, but only made losses. Subsequently, the now multiple father returned to his hometown. The family lived in Hamm from 1867 , where Meyer owned a country villa with a large garden, inherited from his father. The "American Line for Packet Shipping" operated by him in Hamburg at Steinhöft in 1854, which also operated passenger transport, lost numerous passengers when the Powhattan sank on April 16, 1854. The merchant later opened a successful import agency for English cotton goods based in Gröningerstrasse.
Church engagement
As a member of the piety movement, Valentin Lorenz Meyer campaigned for church issues. The lower class population in Hamburg was of particular concern to him. It increased rapidly and was inadequately cared for by the church in the suburbs. He worked closely with the theologian Carl Wilhelm Geiß . He worked as the successor to Johann Wilhelm Rautenberg at the Christian Sunday School in St. Georg . Meyer found his sphere of activity in particular in the chapel community in Barmbek . In the branch Sunday school there, he taught older young people from 1866 onwards due to a lack of voluntary helpers. He held classes every Sunday lunchtime until his death.
He also promoted church life in the community. In 1866 he gave the community a piece of land on which a small chapel was built. When the chapel congregation intended to be officially recognized, it encountered resistance from the established main churches. The reason for this was that the faithful Lutherans were viewed as offensive. Meyer protested against it successfully at the Hamburg Senate . The parish in Barmbek was able to elect its own pastor for the first time in 1870.
In addition to the Barmbeker chapel community, Meyer sponsored other religious institutions. In 1869 he helped finance the construction of the St. Johannes chapel in Rothenburgsort , and in 1874 the Sunday school chapel in Eilbek . For many years he was active as president of the Magdalenenstift and was a member of the boards of the church in Hamm and the Rauhe Haus . Meyer supported the Outer Mission and was involved in the tract society. Around 1900 he secured the location of the Rauhen Haus, which was to give way to the planned Hamburg freight bypass . Meyer made most of his own adjacent garden available as an alternative.
Valentin Lorenz Meyer is commemorated on the collective grave slab merchants (II f) of the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery, Ohlsdorf Cemetery .
literature
- Otto Beneke : History and genealogy of the Lorenz Meyer family in Hamburg . Written and published on behalf of Senator Georg Christian Lorenz Meyer from documented and authentic news. Th. G. Meißner, Hamburg 1861, DNB 579170357 , p. 68 ( digitized version from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek digital [accessed on January 26, 2016]).
- Joist Grolle : Meyer, Valentin Lorenz . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 2 . Christians, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-7672-1366-4 , pp. 286-287 .
- Dr. phil. Ernst Hieke (Ed.): On the history of the companies Behn, Meyer & Co. founded in Singapore on November 1, 1840 and Arnold Otto Meyer founded in Hamburg on June 1, 1857 (= publications by the Wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle e.V., Hamburg . tape 19 ). Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1957.
- Dr. jur. Bernhard Koerner (Hrsg.): German gender book (Genealogisches Handbuch Bürgerlicher Familien) . tape 21 . (Third Hamburg band.). Verlag von CA Starke, Görlitz 1912, DNB 010007776 , p. 342 f . ( Digitized in the Internet Archive [accessed on January 26, 2016]).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meyer, Valentin Lorenz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German businessman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 23, 1817 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 1, 1901 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |