He was the founder of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, now known as the Merck Group, which was established in 1668.
[1][2] Friedrich Jacob Merck was the son of Johann Merck (1573–1642), an innkeeper from Schweinfurt who ran the Zum Schwarzen Bären inn and who was a member of the city council.
In 1668 he acquired the second city pharmacy there, the Engel-Apotheke, which became the start of the Merck company.
He had chosen his nephew Georg Friedrich Merck [de] (1647–1715) as his successor.
[3] This article about a German person in the field of medicine is a stub.