A branch of the family was later ennobled by Prussia as Barons of Berenberg-Gossler (Hamburg was a free imperial city and had no nobility).

Its earliest known ancestor, Thillmann Berenberg, was born on the Groß-Berenberg estate in 1465, and was a cloth merchant.

During the Eighty Years' War, the family fled Lier and settled in the nearby city of Antwerp (Stade).

While a number of Dutch refugees became Hamburg citizens, Hans and Paul Berenberg were not prepared to take that step.

He forged trade links with France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia.

Family connections of the Berenbergs were instrumental to the development, especially in Livorno and Lisbon with its colonies of wealthy Dutch merchants.

By the mid 18th century, investment banking and acceptance credits comprised a significant part of the firm's activities.

During the Napoleonic War, Seyler temporarily moved the headquarters of the Berenberg company to the house of his son-in-law, Gerhard von Hosstrup.

Seyler and Anna Henriette Gossler's children were briefly co-owners of Berenberg Bank, and they have many prominent descendants in Hamburg and Norway with family names such as von Hosstrup, Wegner and Paus.

Several other family members also served as senators, with Hermann Gossler becoming First Mayor (a position equal to the federal princes, Bundesfürsten).

The Berenberg-Gosslers were ennobled in the Kingdom of Prussia (which was technically a foreign country) in 1888 and raised to Baronial rank in 1910.

[8] According to Richard J. Evans, "the wealthy of nineteenth-century Hamburg were for the most part stern republicans, abhorring titles, refusing to accord any deference to the Prussian nobility, and determinedly loyal to their urban background and mercantile heritage.

)[8] In the 19th century, the Berenberg-Gosslers were strongly involved in the industrialisation process in northern Germany and in the North American trade and its finance.

In 1847, the Berenberg-Gosslers were the main founders of the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) together with the merchant house H.J.

[11] During the Nazi era, the Berenberg-Gossler family—themselves descended from religious refugees—especially Baron Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler, were strongly involved in helping Jewish-origined friends and associates in Hamburg who faced persecution, securing the release of Fritz Warburg in 1939.

[12] Heinrich von Berenberg-Gossler was the last family member to serve as a personally liable partner (until 1979).

The Berenbergs used as their coat of arms a bear (im goldenen Felde auf einem grünen Schildfuß ein nach rechts aufgerichteter schwarzer Bär mit goldenem Halsband, in den Vorderpranken einen grünen Zweig haltend).

The following are the descendants of Elisabeth Berenberg and Johann Hinrich Gossler, the founders of the Berenberg-Gossler family.