Ludwig Erdwin Seyler

Ludwig Erdwin Seyler

Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (15 May 1758 – 26 October 1836; also Ludewig and Edwin, known as Ludwig E. Seyler or L.E. Seyler) was a German merchant, banker and grand burgher of Hamburg, a co-owner (from 1788) and head (from 1790) of the Hamburg firm Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. (commonly known as Berenberg Bank) and a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty. Seyler was one of the first German merchants and bankers to establish trade relations with the United States and East Asia.^[1]

Married to Anna Henriette Gossler, he was the son-in-law of Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg. He was President of the Commerz-Deputation (with the Hamburg Stock Exchange) 1817–18 (a member from 1813), and ex officio a member of the Erbgesessene Bürgerschaft (Parliament). During the 1806–1814 French occupation under Napoleon, he was one of a number of prominent Hamburg citizens initially taken hostage by the French, and as Hamburg was annexed into the Bouches-de-l'Elbe département of the First French Empire, he was appointed a judge on the Commercial Court (tribunal de commerce) along with Jacob Amsel Oppenheimer and other leading bankers and merchants.

Descended from the Merian, Burckhardt and Faesch patrician families of Basel, he was the son of the famous Swiss-born merchant turned theatre director Abel Seyler—"the leading patron of German theatre"^[2]—and the stepson of Sophie Seyler, Germany's leading actress of the late 18th century and the author of Hüon und Amande, the inspiration for the libretto of The Magic Flute. He grew up with his uncle, the natural scientist and court pharmacist J.G.R. Andreae in Hanover. His sister Sophie Seyler was the wife of poet Johann Anton Leisewitz, the author of Julius von Tarent. His brother-in-law on his wife's side was Senator Johann Heinrich Gossler, a partner at Berenberg Bank from 1798. He was the uncle of Hamburg head of state Hermann Gossler.

Biography

He started as an apprentice in the Berenberg firm in 1775, at 17.^[3] On 20 May 1788, he married Anna Henriette Gossler (1771–1836), a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg/Gossler family. She was the eldest daughter of the firm's owner, Johann Hinrich Gossler (1738–90) and Elisabeth Berenberg (1749–1822), the only heir of the Flemish-origined Berenberg banking family that established the firm in 1590. Johann Hinrich Gossler had himself married the only daughter of banker Johann Berenberg (1718–1772) and thus become a partner and eventually the sole owner of the firm. In 1788, Gossler took on his son-in-law as the new partner,^[4] and following his death in 1790, Seyler became head of the firm. At the same time, his mother-in-law Elisabeth Gossler née Berenberg became a partner in her own right and managed the firm together with Seyler until 1800. In 1798, his brother-in-law Johann Heinrich Gossler (II) (a Hamburg senator from 1821) also joined the company as a partner.^[5] Seyler was President of the Commerz-Deputation (including the Hamburg Stock Exchange) (May 1817 to July 1818), a position previously held by several members of the Berenberg family.

Ludwig Seyler was the son of Swiss-born Hamburg merchant and theatre director Abel Seyler, "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime,^[2] and Sophie Elisabeth Andreae (1730–1764), a daughter of the wealthy Hanover court pharmacist Leopold Andreae (1686–1730), owner of the Andreae Pharmacy (Andreae & Co.). His paternal grandparents were Abel Seyler (Seiler) (the elder) (died 1767), who was parish priest in Munzach in Liesthal, Basel, from 1714 to 1763, and Anna Cath. Burckhardt (1694–1773), who belonged to the Basel patrician Burckhardt family. After his mother died in 1764, his father remarried in 1772 to Friederike Sophie Seyler, one of Germany's leading actresses of the 18th century and the author of Hüon und Amande that was a major inspiration for The Magic Flute.

He grew up in Hanover with his uncle, J.G.R. Andreae, the Hanover court pharmacist and a noted natural scientist of the Age of Enlightenment, who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin. His sister Sophie was married (1781) to their distant relative, poet Johann Anton Leisewitz.^[6]

His wife was the sister of Hamburg senator and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler II (1775-1842) and the aunt of Hamburg senator and First Mayor (head of state) Hermann Gossler (1802–1877).

Ludwig Seyler and Anna Henriette Gossler were the parents of

• Sophie Henriette Elisabeth ("Betty") Seyler (1789–1837), married to Hamburg businessman Gerhard von Hosstrup, who founded the Hamburger Börsenhalle in 1804
• Auguste Seyler, married to Gerhard von Hosstrup after the death of her sister
• Louise ("Wischen") Seyler (1799–1849), married to ship broker Ernst Friedrich Pinckernelle (1787–1868), whose sons founded the G. & J. E. Pinckernelle insurance broker firm
• Henriette Seyler (1805–1875), married to Norwegian industrialist Jacob Benjamin Wegner (1795–1864).
• Emmy Seyler, married Homann
• Molly Seyler

Ludwig Erdwin Amsinck (1826–1897), a son of his niece Emilie Amsinck née Gossler and business magnate Johannes Amsinck, was named after him.

Gallery

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  His father, the theatre director Abel Seyler

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  His father's second wife, the actress Friederike Sophie Seyler, author of Hüon und Amande

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  His uncle and foster father, the natural scientist and polymath J.G.R. Andreae

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  His brother-in-law, the poet Johann Anton Leisewitz, author of Julius von Tarent

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  His father-in-law Johann Hinrich Gossler, owner of Berenberg Bank

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  His daughter Henriette Seyler (1805–75, married Wegner) drawn by her sister Molly in 1822

Ancestry

See also

• Seyler family
• Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty

References

Literature

• Percy Ernst Schramm, Neun Generationen: Dreihundert Jahre deutscher Kulturgeschichte im Lichte der Schicksale einer Hamburger Bürgerfamilie (1648–1948), Vol. I, Göttingen, 1963
• Percy Ernst Schramm, Kaufleute zu Haus und über See. Hamburgische Zeugnisse des 17., 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe, 1949
• Percy Ernst Schramm, "Kaufleute während Besatzung, Krieg und Belagerung (1806–1815) : der Hamburger Handel in der Franzosenzeit, dargestellt an Hand von Firmen- und Familienpapieren." Tradition: Zeitschrift für Firmengeschichte und Unternehmerbiographie, Vol. 4. Jahrg., No. 1. (Feb 1959), pp. 1–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40696638
• Percy Ernst Schramm, "Hamburger Kaufleute in der 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts," in: Tradition. Zeitschrift für Firmengeschichte und Unternehmerbiographie 1957, No 4., pp. 307–332. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40696554

v t e Berenberg Bank History Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty Seyler family  Baron of Berenberg-Gossler Divisions Berenberg Bank  Universal Investment  Berenberg Bank Stiftung Berenberg/Gossler/Seyler family Cornelius Berenberg Paul Berenberg Rudolf Berenberg Elisabeth Berenberg Johann Hinrich Gossler Ludwig Erdwin Seyler Johann Heinrich Gossler Johann von Berenberg-Gossler Hermann Gossler John von Berenberg-Gossler Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler Heinrich von Berenberg-Gossler Other people Holger Schmieding Peter von Kap-Herr Hans-Walter Peters