Ludwig Erdwin Seyler (15 May 1758 – 26 October 1836; often known as ''L.E. Seyler'') was a

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage, it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in comm ...

er and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He was by marriage a member of the

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

Berenberg dynasty, and was a partner in the Hamburg firm Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. (now known as Berenberg Bank) for 48 years (1788–1836), for 46 years as the company's senior partner. The company name was amended in 1791 to reflect him becoming a partner and has remained unchanged since; he "is practically the 'Co.' in the company name." Seyler was one of the first merchants and bankers from modern Germany to establish trade relations with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. Much of the company's wealth derived from their position as leading

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

importers from the Americas to the North European market, in combination with their activities as merchants bankers. Seyler was one of Hamburg's leading merchants during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and held several political offices. He served as a member of the French-appointed council of Hamburg and after the Napoleonic Wars as the President of the Commercial Deputation, one of the city-state's main political bodies. Ludwig Seyler was a son of the Swiss-born theatre director

Abel Seyler Abel Seyler (23 August 1730, Liestal – 25 April 1800, Rellingen) was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe. He played a pivotal role in the dev ...

and a son-in-law of the bankers

Johann Hinrich Gossler Johann Hinrich Gossler (18 August 1738 – 31 August 1790) was a German merchant and banker. He was married to Elisabeth Berenberg (1749–1822) and succeeded his father-in-law Johann Berenberg as head of the Berenberg & Gossler company, that ...

and

Elisabeth Berenberg Elisabeth Berenberg (2 December 1749 – 16 January 1822) was a Hamburg heiress, merchant banker and a member of the Berenberg family. She was the last male line member of the Flemish-origined Hanseatic Berenberg banking family in Hamburg, and a ...

through his marriage to their eldest daughter Anna Henriette Gossler.

Background and early life

Ludwig E. Seyler was born in Hamburg and was the younger son of the Swiss-born

(1730–1800), one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe, and his Hanoverian wife Sophie Elisabeth Andreae (1730–1764). His father had been born in the Swiss

Canton of Basel Basel was a canton of Switzerland that was in existence between 1501 and 1833, when it was split into the two half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country. Background Before the Protestant Reformation, Basel was ruled by prince-bishops (see ...

and had come to Hamburg as a young adult, where he had established himself as a merchant banker in the 1750s and 1760s. As a merchant banker Abel Seyler became highly controversial in Hamburg due to his "malicious" speculation in financial instruments, and in 1763 his companies went spectacularly bankrupt with enormous debts in the wake of the

Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763 The Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763 in the Netherlands followed the end of the Seven Years' War. At this time prices of grain and other commodities were falling sharply, and the supply of credit (finance), credit dried up due to the decrease ...

. From 1767 Abel Seyler devoted himself entirely to the theatre, largely abandoning his children as he adopted a traveling lifestyle, moving from court to court with the

Seyler Theatre Company The Seyler Theatre Company, also known as the Seyler Company (German: ''Seylersche Schauspiel-Gesellschaft'', sometimes ''Seylersche Truppe''), was a travelling theatrical company founded in 1769 by Abel Seyler. It was one of the most famous and ...

. Following the death of their mother in 1764, Ludwig Seyler and his brother and sister were raised in Hanover by their maternal uncle, the noted

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

natural scientist J.G.R. Andreae. By several accounts Andreae was a highly erudite and kind man who became a loving father figure to his sister's children; he had no children of his own. Their father, Abel Seyler, remarried in 1772 to

Friederike Sophie Seyler Friederike Sophie Seyler (1738, Dresden – 22 November 1789, Schleswig; née Sparmann, formerly married Hensel) was a German actress, playwright and librettist. Alongside Friederike Caroline Neuber, she was widely considered Germany's greatest a ...

, Germany's leading actress of the second half of the 18th century and the author of the opera ''

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairy, fairies in Middle Ages, medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania ...

'', a major influence on the libretto of ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

''. On his father's side Seyler was descended from many of

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

's leading patrician families, especially the families

Seyler Seyler is a surname, and may refer to: *Seyler family, a Swiss-German family of artists and bankers, including ** Abel Seyler (1730–1801), Swiss theatre director ** Friederike Sophie Seyler (1737/38–1789), German actress and librettist ** Lud ...

Burckhardt The Burckhardt family alternatively also (de) Bourcard (in French) is a family of the Basel patriciate, descended from Christoph (Stoffel) Burckhardt (1490–1578), a merchant in cloth and silk originally from Münstertal, Black Forest, who rece ...

Socin Sozzini, Sozini, Socini or Socin is an Italians, Italian Italian nobility, noble family originally from Siena in Tuscany, where the family were noted as bankers and merchants, jurists and humanism, humanist scholars. The family has been described ...

(originally an Italian noble family),

Merian Merian may refer to People with the surname * Merian family, Swiss patrician family from Basel * Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650), Swiss-German engraver and publisher * Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621–1687), Swiss painter * Maria Siby ...

and

Faesch The Faesch family, also spelled Fesch, is a prominent Swiss, French, Belgian, Corsican and Italian noble family, originally a patrician family of Basel. Known since the early 15th century, the family received a confirmation of nobility from the ...

; Cardinal

Joseph Fesch Joseph Cardinal Fesch, Prince of the Empire (3 January 1763 – 13 May 1839) was a French priest and diplomat, who was the maternal half-uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte (half-brother of Letizia Ramolino, Napoleon's mother Laetitia). In the wake of h ...

, Napoleon's uncle, was a distant relative. On his mother's side he was a grandson of the Hanoverian court pharmacist Leopold Andreae. His sister Sophie Seyler (1762–1833) was married to the

Sturm und Drang (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto-Romanticism, Romantic movement in German literature and Music of Germany, music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity an ...

poet

Johann Anton Leisewitz Johann Anton Leisewitz (9 May 1752 – 10 September 1806) was a German lawyer and dramatic poet, and a central figure of the Sturm und Drang era. He is best known for his play '' Julius of Taranto'' (1776), that inspired Friedrich Schiller and is ...

, the author of '' Julius of Taranto''.

Felix Hoppe-Seyler Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (''né'' Felix Hoppe; 26 December 1825 – 10 August 1895) was a German physiologist and chemist, and the principal founder of the disciplines of biochemistry and molecular biology. He had discovered Yeast nuclei ...

, the principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology, was an adopted son of his nephew.

Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co.

He joined the Berenberg & Gossler company in Hamburg as an apprentice in 1775, aged 17. At the time the company's sole owner was his would-be father-in-law

(1738–90), who had been named a partner by his own father-in-law Johann Berenberg (1718–72) in 1769. The company was founded in 1590 by the immigrant Berenberg family from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. On 20 May 1788, Seyler married Anna Henriette Gossler (1771–1836), the eldest child of the company's owners, Johann Hinrich Gossler and

(1749–1822). His mother-in-law was the only heir of the Berenberg family. During his lifetime and beyond his wife's family was regarded as one of the two most prominent families of the city-state of Hamburg. Shortly after his marriage, his father-in-law made him a partner in the Berenberg company. Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1790, he succeeded him as the company's senior partner and effective head. His mother-in-law was a partner in her own right from 1790 to 1800, and in 1798 his seventeen years younger brother-in-law, the later senator

Johann Heinrich Gossler Johann Heinrich Gossler (28 March 1775 – 3 April 1842) was a Hamburg banker and grand burgher, a member of the Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty, a co-owner (from 1798) of the Berenberg Bank and a senator of Hamburg from 1821. He was the ...

, joined the company as a partner. Under his leadership and to reflect his entry into the partnership the company name was changed to Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. in 1791, and has remained unchanged since. As head of the Berenberg company Seyler greatly expanded the company's international trade, and was one of the first merchants and bankers from Germany who established trade relations with the newly independent

and with

. By 1800 the capital of the company had doubled since he became a partner, to about a million Mark Banco, and had established itself as one of the largest merchant houses of Hamburg. The company lost half its capital during the

, but quickly regained and exceeded its former size once the war ended. Astrid Petersson notes that the company's "extensive

imports in the period after 1814, especially from Brazil, the U.S. and East Asia, some of which represented a continuation of their trading relationships dating back to the late 18th century, contributed significantly to the company's wealth. In combination with their position as merchant bankers, it became a respected company well beyond the borders of Germany, that was only rivaled by few other merchant houses around 1830." As of 1809 L.E. Seyler owned 5/12 (about 41%) of the Berenberg company and was the company's senior/managing partner and largest shareholder; his brother in law Johann Heinrich Gossler owned 4/12 (about 33%). Seyler remained one of the two dominant partners, with his brother-in-law, until his death in 1836. At the time of his death he had worked for the company for 61 years, been a partner for 48 years and been the company's senior partner for 46 years.

Napoleonic Wars and politics

During the

Hamburg was occupied by France from 1806 and annexed into the

Bouches-de-l'Elbe Bouches-de-l'Elbe (; , ) was a department of the First French Empire in present-day Germany that survived for three years. It was named after the mouth of the river Elbe. It was formed in 1811, when the region, originally belonging partially to ...

département of the

First French Empire The First French Empire or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

in 1811. The French government promoted the French language and instituted numerous changes in Hamburg. In February 1813 Seyler was appointed by the French authorities as a deputy judge on the commercial tribunal (''tribunal de commerce''). During the spring of 1813 he was among 30 prominent and wealthy Hamburg merchants who were briefly held as hostages by the French authorities to force the city to pay a "contribution" to the French government, which caused great consternation in Hamburg. The Berenberg company's head office was moved to his home in Wandrahm in 1813 when the Gossler family's city residence, Mortzenhaus, was requisitioned by the French and turned into a military hospital. Seyler later moved the head office to the home of his son-in-law Gerhard von Hosstrup. In the summer of 1813 he was appointed by the French Governor-General

Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis-Nicolas d'Avout (; 10 May 1770 – 1 June 1823), better known as Davout, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, was a French people, French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who served during both the French Revolution ...

as a member of the municipal council (''conseil municipal''), the governing body of Hamburg which had replaced both the government (known as the council, later as the senate) and the parliament under French rule. He served in the municipal council until it was dissolved after the liberation of Hamburg, when Hamburg became a fully sovereign state. For a brief transition period, the former municipal councillors were asked to serve in the post-Napoleonic government. On 23 March 1813 he was elected as a member of the Commercial Deputation and he served as its President from May 1817 to July 1818. The Commercial Deputation was one of the city-state's main political bodies. As a member of the Commercial Deputation he was also ''ex officio'' a member of the

Hamburg Parliament The Hamburg Parliament (; literally “Hamburgish Citizenry” or, more poetically, “Hamburgish Burgess (title), Burgessry”) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. ...

in accordance with the city-state's post-Napoleonic constitution. He was also a member of the Banco Deputation, the commission that had the oversight over Hamburg's internationally used Banco currency, and of the Shipping and Port Deputation.

Legacy

L.E. Seyler was highly regarded in Hamburg; he was described as "an honourable character, both as a merchant and as a human being." Seyler is interred in the family grave of the Berenberg/ Gossler family on the Old Hamburg Memorial Cemetery (''Althamburgischer Gedächtnisfriedhof'', formerly ''Ehrenfriedhof''), together with his wife Anna Henriette née Gossler, his mother-in-law

and other relatives such as his brother-in-law, Senator

and his nephew, Hamburg First Mayor

Hermann Gossler Hermann Gossler (21 August 1802 in Hamburg, – 10 May 1877 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg lawyer, senator (1842–77) and First Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (i.e. the city republic's head of state and he ...

. The grave is one of only six family graves on the memorial cemetery, which is reserved for notable Hamburg citizens.

Issue and family

Ludwig Seyler and Anna Henriette Gossler had seven children, in order of birth #Sophie Henriette Elisabeth ("Betty") Seyler (1789–1837), married to Hamburg businessman Gerhard von Hosstrup, who founded the Hamburger Börsenhalle in 1804 #Johann ''Hinrich'' Seyler #Emilie ("Emmy") Seyler, married to the physician Ludwig Friedrich Christian Homann #Louise ''Auguste'' Seyler, married to Gerhard von Hosstrup after the death of her sister #Maria ("Molly") Seyler #Louise ("Wischen") Seyler (1799–1849), married to

ship broker Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global Ship_transport, shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and Chartering (shipping), charterers who use ships to ...

Ernst Friedrich Pinckernelle (1787–1868), whose sons founded the G. & J. E. Pinckernelle insurance broker firm # Henriette Seyler (1805–1875), married to the Norwegian industrialist

Benjamin Wegner Jacob Benjamin Wegner (21 February 1795 – 9 June 1864) was a Norwegian business magnate. He was one of the country's leading mining magnates as the director-general and co-owner of Blaafarveværket, and also had significant interests in o ...

(1795–1864) of Fossum Manor, later of

Frogner Manor Frogner Manor (''Frogner Hovedgård'') is a manor house and former Estate (land), estate in today's borough of Frogner in Oslo, Norway. The estate comprised most of the modern borough of Frogner, which has been named after the estate, and Frog ...

His seven children were co-owners of Berenberg Bank from 26 October to 31 December 1836. The co-founder of

Commerzbank The Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (shortly known as Commerzbank AG or Commerzbank ) is a European Financial institution, banking institution headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It offers services to private and entrepreneurial c ...

Ludwig Erdwin

Amsinck The Amsinck family is a Dutch people, Dutch-origined patrician (post-Roman Europe), patrician family whose members were prominent merchants in multiple countries including the Netherlands, Hamburg, Portugal, England, France, Kingdom of Hanover, ...

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

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

Portraits

Gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

portraits of Ludwig E. Seyler and his wife Anna Henriette Gossler from the Napoleonic era or its immediate aftermath were owned by the descendants of their daughter Henriette in Norway, and were sold through the Norwegian art broker Blomqvist in 2018. There also exist portraits of him and his two siblings as children, probably from the 1760s.''Johann Anton Leisewitzens briefe an seine braut'', vol. 1, p. xxvi, Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, 1906

Gallery

File:Abel Seyler silhouette - Basel.svg, His father, the theatre director

File:Sophie Friederike Hensel.jpg, His father's second wife, the actress

, author of ''

'' File:Johann Gerhard Reinhard Andreae.JPG, His uncle and foster father, the natural scientist and polymath J.G.R. Andreae File:JALeisewitz.jpg, His brother-in-law, the poet

, author of '' Julius of Taranto'' File:JohannHinrichGossler.jpg, His father-in-law

, owner of

Berenberg Bank Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a Multinational corporation, multinational full-service private bank, private and merchant bank headquartered in H ...

File:Henriette Seyler drawn by her sister Molly Seyler in 1827 (cropped).jpeg, His daughter Henriette Seyler (1805–75, married Wegner) drawn by her sister Molly in 1822

Ancestry

References

Literature

Percy Ernst Schramm Percy Ernst Schramm (14 October 1894 – 12 November 1970) was a German historian who specialized in art history and medieval history. Schramm was a Chair and Professor of History at the University of Göttingen from 1929 to 1963. Early lif ...

, ''Neun Generationen: Dreihundert Jahre deutscher Kulturgeschichte im Lichte der Schicksale einer Hamburger Bürgerfamilie (1648–1948)'', Vol. I, Göttingen, 1963 *

, ''Kaufleute zu Haus und über See. Hamburgische Zeugnisse des 17., 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts'', Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe, 1949 *

, "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. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40696638 *

, "Hamburger Kaufleute in der 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts," in: ''Tradition. Zeitschrift für Firmengeschichte und Unternehmerbiographie'' 1957, No 4., pp. 307–332. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40696554 {{DEFAULTSORT:Seyler, Ludwig Erdwin German bankers Merchant bankers Berenberg-Gossler family Berenberg Bank people Members of the Hamburg Parliament German people of Swiss descent German people of Italian descent Grand burghers of Hamburg 1758 births 1836 deaths Ludwig Erdwin Merchants from the Holy Roman Empire Bankers from the Holy Roman Empire