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 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 Hamburg-based multinational full-service investment bank. It was founded by the Flemish-origined Berenberg family in 1590 and is the world's oldest merchant bank and also the world's oldest or second oldest bank, depending on the definition. Its owners, the Berenberg/Gossler family, belonged to the ruling elite of Hanseatic merchants of the city-republic of Hamburg and several family members served in the city-state's government from 1735. Like many other merchant bankers, the Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants. The bank's name refers to Johann Berenberg and his son-in-law Johann Hinrich Gossler, and has remained unchanged since 1791. The bank has operated continuously since 1590 and is still part-owned by members of the Berenberg-Gossler family.
Jacob Benjamin Wegner was a Norwegian business magnate, estate owner and timber merchant.
Gerhard Carsten Jakob von Hosstrup was a Hamburg businessman and the founder of the Hamburg Stock Exchange building. He became Oberalter in 1843.
G. & J. E. Pinckernelle is a Hamburg insurance broker firm, established on 1 December 1857 by the brothers Gustav (1821–1875) and Johann Ernst Pinckernelle (1827–1906). The company however traces its roots to the ship broker company E. F. Pinckernelle, established by their father Ernst Friedrich Pinckernelle (1787–1868) in Hamburg in 1818.
Ludwig Erdwin Seyler was a Hamburg banker, merchant and politician. He was by marriage a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg banking 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. Seyler was one of the first merchants and bankers from modern Germany to establish trade relations with the United States and East Asia. He served as a member of the government of Hamburg during the Napoleonic Wars and later as the President of the Commercial Deputation, one of the city-state's main political bodies, and as a member of the Hamburg Parliament. 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.
Hermann Gossler was a Hamburg lawyer, senator (1842–77) 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 as head of state of republican Hamburg was equal to the federal princes (Bundesfürsten) within the German Empire. As a senator, he also served as Lord of Police (Polizeiherr), the equivalent of a Minister of Police.
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 16th century. Having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest surviving merchant bank.
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.
Johann Heinrich Burchard was a Hamburg lawyer and politician who served as senator and First Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
Samuel Eliot was an American banker and businessman from the prominent Eliot family of Boston. He served as president of Massachusetts Bank, and was a highly successful Boston merchant owning and operating what was then the precursor to 19th and 20th century style department stores. At the time of his death, he had amassed one of the largest fortunes in Boston.
The Seyler family is a Swiss family, originally a patrician family from Liestal near Basel. Family members served as councillors and Schultheißen of Liestal from the 15th century, later also as members of the Grand Council of Basel. A Hamburg branch descended from the banker and renowned theatre director Abel Seyler became by marriage a part of the Berenberg banking dynasty, co-owners of Berenberg Bank and part of Hamburg's ruling class of Hanseaten.
Baron Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler was a German banker, a member of the illustrious Berenberg-Gossler banking dynasty, and owner and head of Berenberg Bank from 1913. He withdrew from active management of the bank in 1932.
Baron of Berenberg-Gossler is a title in the German nobility, specifically the nobility of the Kingdom of Prussia, created in 1910 for banker Johann von Berenberg-Gossler of the Hamburg Hanseatic Berenberg-Gossler family. The title is held by one person at a time and is tied to an entailed estate (Fideikommiss), Gut Niendorf. For this reason, it is not always inherited by the eldest son. The title is currently held by humanitarian Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler. The first three title holders were all heads of Berenberg Bank.
Johann Berenberg was a Hamburg merchant banker. He was a co-owner of Berenberg Bank from 1748, with his brother, senator Paul Berenberg, and after the latter's death in 1768 the sole owner. The bank still bears his name. He was also noted as an art collector and held several public offices in the city-state of Hamburg.
Henriette Wegner, née Henriette Seyler, was a Norwegian businesswoman and philanthropist, a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg and the wife of the Norwegian industrialist Benjamin Wegner. She was briefly a co-owner of Berenberg Bank, and was also noted for her work for the homeless in Norway. During her life she was a citizen of the city-republic of Hamburg, of France during the Napoleonic Wars, and finally of Norway from 1824.
The Gossler family, including the Berenberg-Gossler branch, is a Hanseatic and partially noble banking family from Hamburg.
Anna Henriette Gossler was a Hamburg banker, heiress and socialite.
