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The Merck family is a German noble family of industrialists and bankers, known for establishing the world's oldest pharmaceutical company Merck, its American former subsidiary Merck & Co. (MSD), which is now an independent company, as well as the Hamburg merchant bank H. J. Merck & Co. The family still owns the majority of the pharmaceutical company Merck, making them one of the richest families in the world with an estimated wealth of more than 80 billion Dollars.
The family first appeared in Hammelburg in the 15th century. The family has a long history in pharmacy going back to the 17th century. The Merck family controls a majority of 70.3% of the company's shares. An American former subsidiary of the Merck company, Merck & Co. (MSD), was also established by the Merck family and still carries the family's name, but, unlike its former parent company, is no longer owned by the Merck family, since it was nationalized by the American government in 1917 because of World War I and the stock was bought back by George F. Merck in 1919. Merck & Co. was also led by family member George W. Merck (son of George F. Merck) from 1925 until 1950.
A branch of the family descended from Heinrich Johann Merck (1770–1853) belonged to Hamburg's ruling class of Hanseatic merchants. His family founded the merchant bank H. J. Merck & Co. and several family members served as senators in Hamburg, while his son Carl Merck (1809–1880) was Syndicus (foreign affairs head) of Hamburg 1847–1880. Another son, the merchant banker Ernst Merck, who had been the Austrian consul-general in Hamburg, was ennobled by the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I in 1860 and received the title of Baron.
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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 commodities, particularly cloth merchants. Historically, merchant banks' purpose was to facilitate or finance the production and trade of commodities, hence the name "merchant". Few banks today restrict their activities to such a narrow scope.
The Merck Group, branded and commonly known as Merck, is a German multinational science and technology company headquartered in Darmstadt, with about 60,000 employees and a presence in 66 countries. The group includes around 250 companies; the main company is Merck KGaA in Germany. The company is divided into three business lines: Healthcare, Life Sciences and Electronics. Merck was founded in 1668 and is the world's oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company, as well as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally.
Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including:
M. M. Warburg & CO KGaA is a German private bank, based in Hamburg. A family-owned bank, it was founded in 1798 by brothers Moses Marcus Warburg and Gerson Warburg, two members of the Warburg family. The bank was Aryanized under the Nazis. The Warburg family still owns 40 percent of the bank, continuing a more than 225-year legacy of private ownership.
Warburg is a city in Germany.
The Warburg family is a prominent German and American banking family of German Jewish and originally Venetian Jewish descent, noted for their varied accomplishments in biochemistry, botany, political activism, economics, investment banking, law, physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy.
The private bank Merck Finck A Quintet Private Bank, founded in 1870, is based in Munich and is also represented nationwide with a total of 10 locations. Since 2011, it has been a subsidiary of the Luxembourg bank KBL European Private Bankers (KBL), which was renamed Quintet Private Bank in January 2020.
Johann Heinrich Schröder was a member of the Hanseatic Schröder family of Hamburg, who settled in London and founded Schroders, one of the United Kingdom's largest investment banks.
The Merck Manuals are medical references published by the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., that cover a wide range of medical topics, including disorders, tests, diagnoses, and drugs. The manuals have been published since 1899, when Merck & Co. was still a subsidiary of the German company Merck.
The Hanseaten is a collective term for the hierarchy group consisting of elite individuals and families of prestigious rank who constituted the ruling class of the free imperial city of Hamburg, conjointly with the equal First Families of the free imperial cities of Bremen and Lübeck. The members of these First Families were the persons in possession of hereditary grand burghership of these cities, including the mayors, the senators, joint diplomats and the senior pastors. Hanseaten refers specifically to the ruling families of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen, but more broadly, this group is also referred to as patricians along with similar social groups elsewhere in continental Europe.
Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service private and merchant bank headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It is considered the world's oldest merchant bank.
Johann Cesar Godeffroy was a German trader, blackbirder and Hanseat.
Jacob Benjamin Wegner 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 other mining and timber companies.
Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and is named for Merck Group, founded in Germany in 1668, of which it was once the American arm. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, generally ranking in the global top five by revenue.
Ludwig Erdwin Seyler was a Hamburg merchant, merchant banker and politician. He was by marriage a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg dynasty, and was a partner in the Hamburg firm Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. 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 and East Asia. Much of the company's wealth derived from their position as leading sugar 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 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 and a son-in-law of the bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg through his marriage to their eldest daughter Anna Henriette Gossler.
The Berenberg family was a Flemish-origined Hanseatic family of merchants, bankers and senators in Hamburg, with branches in London, Livorno and other European cities. The family was descended from the brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg from Antwerp, who came as Protestant refugees to the city-republic of Hamburg following the Fall of Antwerp in 1585 and who established what is now Berenberg Bank in Hamburg in 1590. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and became involved in merchant banking in the 17th century. Having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest surviving merchant bank.
H. J. Merck & Co. was one of the largest merchant banks in Hamburg, Germany and existed from 1799 to 1983. Merck & Co. was also involved in shipping, and co-founded the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) with Berenberg Bank.
The Links is a private club in New York City. It is located at 36 East 62nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Charles B. Macdonald, a golf champion and founder of the United States Golf Association, started the Links in 1917 as a place where powerful members of the golf world could keep the true spirit of the game alive.
Carl Hermann Merck was one of the leading Hamburg statesmen of the 19th century, holding the office of Syndicus from 1847 until his death in 1880.
