Johann von Berenberg-Gossler

Who is Johann von Berenberg-Gossler?

Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler, known as "John," was a German banker from the city-state of Hamburg and owner and head of Berenberg Bank from 1879 until his death.

He was a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg/Gossler family and the son of banker Johann Heinrich Gossler, grandson of banker and senator Johann Heinrich Gossler and great-grandson of banker Johann Hinrich Gossler. His uncle was First Mayor and President of the Senate Hermann Gossler. His mother was Mary Elizabeth Bray, a granddaughter of Samuel Eliot and a member of the Eliot family from Boston.

Known as "John Bi" by his friends, he was a Schöngeist. He loved music and the theatre, and wanted to study languages, literature and history. But his father had destined him to become a banker. After apprenticeships in England, France, North and South America, he became an associé of his father's bank in 1864. After the death of his father in 1879, he became head of Berenberg Bank.

In 1880, the Hamburg senate granted him the name of Berenberg-Gossler in recognition of the fact that he was the owner of the Berenberg Bank. In 1888, Johann Berenberg-Gossler was ennobled in the Kingdom of Prussia and conferred the title of Baron in 1910. The ennoblement was controversial within his family and Hamburg high society, as nobility was frowned upon by the staunchly republican Hamburg grand burghers. His sister Susanne, married Amsinck, exclaimed "Aber John, unser guter Name!"