Johann Berenberg

Johann Berenberg

Johann Berenberg (born 12 March 1718 in Hamburg, died 2 March 1772 in Hamburg) was a German merchant and banker. He was a co-owner of Berenberg Bank from 1748, with his brother, senator Paul Berenberg, and after the latter's death in 1768 the sole owner. The bank still bears his name (Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co.).

He was a son of senator Rudolf Berenberg (1680–1746) and Anna Elisabeth Amsinck (1690–1748), and a grandson of Cornelius Berenberg and of the Lisbon and Hamburg merchant Paul Amsinck. He was also a great-grandson of the scholar Rudolf Capell, and was descended from the Welser family. A large portion of his ancestors were from today's Belgium and the Netherlands, and he also had Spanish ancestry.

He learnt his trade as an apprentice in a Venice firm between 1735 and 1741; his father had started his career as an apprentice in the same firm. From 1748 he became owner of the Berenberg company together with his brother Paul. He also held numerous honorary offices in Hamburg.

He was married to Anna Maria Lastrop (1723–1761) and had two children, but after his son Rudolf died in Suriname in 1768, aged 20, his daughter Elisabeth Berenberg remained as the only heir and last surviving member of the Berenberg family. In 1768, she married an employee of the Berenberg company, Johann Hinrich Gossler, and in 1769, Gossler was made a partner by his father-in-law, becoming the firm's head upon Johann Berenberg's death in 1772.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Berenberg, Johann," in Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie, Vol. 1, Walter de Gruyter, 2005, p. 543, ISBN 3110946572

Literature