Hermann Gossler

Who was Hermann Gossler?

Hermann Gossler was a Hamburg lawyer, senator and First Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 1874. He was Second Mayor in 1870, 1871 and 1873. During much of his tenure as senator and his first term as Second Mayor, Hamburg was a fully sovereign country, while after 1871, the First Mayor was equal to the federal princes of the German Empire. As a senator, he also served as Lord of Police, the equivalent of a Minister of Police.

He belonged to the Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty and was the son of banker and senator Johann Heinrich Gossler, owner of Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co, and the grandson of Johann Hinrich Gossler. His brothers Johann Heinrich Gossler and Wilhelm Gossler continued the firm. His nephew Johann von Berenberg-Gossler was conferred Baronial rank in 1910.

Hermann Gossler studied law at the University of Heidelberg, and worked as a lawyer in Hamburg from 1826 to 1837. He became Senate Secretary in 1837. From 1838 to 1842, he was Secretarius of the High Court. In 1842 he was elected Senator.