Carl Hermann Merck (3 May 1809 – 16 October 1880) was one of the leading Hamburg statesmen of the 19th century, holding the office of Syndicus from 1847 until his death in 1880.
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Early life
His father Heinrich Johann Merck (1770-1853), originally from Schweinfurt, Franconia, was a Hamburg merchant and became a Senator in 1820. Carl Merck attended school at the Johanneum in Hamburg and the Gymnasium in Rinteln. He then studied law and political science in Leipzig, Göttingen, and Heidelberg universities, being awarded a doctorate at Heidelberg in 1831. Rather than pursue a career in Law, he travelled widely, nominally on behalf of his father's firm, to further his education. For several years he lived successively in England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt.
In 1840 Merck returned to Hamburg to devote himself more and more to the public affairs of his native city. First, he took part in the establishment of the Hamburg-Bergedorf railway, the first railway line which was undertaken in north Germany. After the Great fire of Hamburg of May 1842, he joined as a Secretary in the then formed Technical Commission for reconstruction, which included British engineer William Lindley.
Syndicus
In 1843 the position of Senate Secretary became free, which, as a rule, opened the prospect of becoming a Syndicus, because a Syndicus would normally have progressed from Secretary. Both Merck and his friend from Heidelberg University, Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer, were interested and they submitted their applications at precisely the same time. The competition resolved itself, as the Senate elected Kirchenpauer to be a senator on 4 December and then gave the free secretary office to Merck on 22 December. From this Merck rose, as he had hoped, in July 1847 to become one of the four Syndics. He was elected Syndicus replacing Karl Sieveking, joining Syndics Wilhelm Amsinck, Johann Kauffmann and Edward Banks.
The four syndics sat in the Senate with the senators and took part in the debates, but had no vote. The office, at that time, was somewhat analogous to that of a cabinet minister (which did not exist as such in Hamburg). To them were entrusted all important negotiations, and the preparation of every legislative enactment.
Sieveking had been in charge of the Foreign Affairs of the State of Hamburg since 1820 when he became a Syndicus. After Sieveking's death, Banks was entrusted with the direction of foreign affairs. From 1848, Banks took up a number of diplomatic posts abroad and later suffered from ill health.
Merck then took on the foreign affairs role. Since then, Merck was at the centre of public life in Hamburg.
Hermann Merck was a representative of Hanseatic particularism par excellence. Merck, who himself came from a wealthy merchant family, sought to guarantee the welfare of the city and its trade and promote the continuity of Hamburg's policy of neutrality and the preservation of its independence. He belonged to the anti-Prussian party in the Senate of Hamburg, because Prussia for him embodied the “power state” and he did not think the creation of something good and durable was likely, if the policy was based on power, rather than law.
Although the law of 1849 gave the Syndics only a consultative function, they were ranked between the senators and the two mayors. However, the Constitution of Hamburg of 1860 narrowed their rights, so that they now ranked behind the senators and they also lost their title "Magnificence". Merck's special position in the Senate can be measured by the fact that an exception was made in his case and he retained the title, rank and responsibilities.
Merck and 1866 crisis
Following the Second Schleswig War of 1864, Schleswig and Holstein became a Prusso-Austrian condominium, with Prussia occupying the former and Austria the latter. On 8 June 1866 Prussian general Von Manteuffel crossed the river Eider into Holstein, having warned the Austrians that he was exercising Prussia's condominate right to establish garrisons in some unoccupied points of Holstein. Austria withdrew from Holstein, but requested the Federal Diet (Bundestag) of the German Confederation to mobilise militarily against Prussia.
On 11 June, the Diet was convoked and Austria moved that all Federal military contingents except Prussia's be mobilised. Prussia responded by laying before the Diet a scheme of reform of ten articles, the most salient being the exclusion of Austria from the Confederation and the election of a representative body in the remainder; Prussia moved its immediate adoption. The Diet voted on the Austrian proposal on 14 June, which was carried by nine votes to six. The three Hanseatic cities, through their joint envoy Friedrich Krüger, voted against the Austrian proposal and made a declaration (formulated by Lübeck) that the events in Holstein did not justify the mobilisation of Federal forces because the danger of an immediate collision had passed.
On 16 June, Emil von Richthofen, the Prussian envoy to the Hanseatic states, presented to the Hamburg Senate and other German governments an "identical note" asking for an alliance on the basis of Prussia's reform proposal placed before the Diet and requesting that its troops be mobilised and placed at the disposal Prussia.
Under the direction of Merck, the Senate Foreign Affairs Commission (Hamburg's foreign ministry), dealt with the Prussian proposals on 17 June. The result was negative, because the Commission believed that the Prussian alliance was not in Hamburg's interests. Instead, they proposed to hold a conference with the other two Hanseatic cities in order to proceed together on this question. Prior to this conference, Merck endeavoured to determine the specific consequences of a rejection of the Prussian alliance for Hamburg. Merck learned more about Prussian intentions through diplomatic channels with the Hanseatic Minister-Resident in Berlin, Friedrich Geffcken, reporting that the Prussian Minister Alexander von Schleinitz said the King had stated that Prussia did not want to act against the Hanseatic cities, as they voted with Prussia in the Federal Diet on 14 June.
Other duties
Merck, in addition to the Syndicate for Foreign Affairs, was given many other official functions, both in public and private, such as President of the Kunsthalle and the Hamburg City Hall Construction Commission, also chairman of the International Horticultural Exhibition of 1869.
Postscript
He was spared seeing the occurrence Hamburg's absorption in the German Customs Union, the so-called “Zoll Anchluss”, as he died in October 1880 a few months before the conclusion of the treaty in 1881.