Johann Hinrich Gossler

Who was Johann Hinrich Gossler?

Johann Hinrich Gossler was a German banker and grand burgher of Hamburg, a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg-Gossler-Seyler banking dynasty and the owner and head of the firm Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co.. He was married to Elisabeth Berenberg, the only heir of the illustrious Berenberg banking family.

Gossler was the scion of an ancient Hamburg family which had been resident in Hamburg since the 14th century, and his paternal ancestors were burghers and velvet makers. His father had bought the office of Herrenschenk for 10,600 mark, making him master of ceremonies of the Hamburg council, and his maternal grandfather Jürgen Friedrich Boedecker was a Hamburg merchant and grand burgher from 1706.

At a young age, Johann Hinrich Gossler joined the Berenberg company as an apprentice. The company was involved in merchant banking, insurance, shipping and trade of goods, and had been established by the Dutch Berenberg family in 1590. After seven years, at 22 and having completed his apprenticeship, Gossler left Hamburg to work for a company in Cadiz, and travelled extensively in Spain, Portugal, France and England. In 1768, he returned to Hamburg, where he married Elisabeth Berenberg in the same year. She was the only daughter of the Berenberg company's surviving owner, Johann Berenberg. Johann Berenberg made his son-in-law a partner in 1769. Upon the death of Johann Berenberg's brother Cornelius in 1773, the Berenberg family became extinct in the male line and Johann Hinrich Gossler became the company's sole owner. In 1788, Gossler took on his own son-in-law Ludwig Erdwin Seyler as a partner.