Gesellschaft zur Beförderung gemeinnütziger Tätigkeit

It was the preacher at St. Peter's Church, Lübeck (and later lawyer) Ludwig Suhl (1752–1819) and his friends Christian Adolph Overbeck, Johann Julius Walbaum, Anton Diedrich Gütschow, Gottlieb Nicolaus Stolterfoth, Johann Friedrich Petersen, and Nicolaus Heinrich Brehmer who, on 27 January 1789, founded this charity, first of all as a Literärische Gesellschaft ("literary society") with sidelines of scientific research and education; in 1791 the society's scope was broadened, and in 1793 it acquired the name it still bears today, although it is often abbreviated as the Gemeinnützige.

The democratically structured and middle class society and its social house (from 1826 at the address Breite Strasse 33, and from 1891 at Königstrasse 5) rapidly became the centre of practical reform work in the spirit of the Enlightenment.

The company was involved in the improvement of conditions in many areas of life; for example, it established a River Lifesavers Institute.

It ran the Sparkasse zu Lübeck, a credit union, and up to 1934 the Museum of Art and Cultural History.

On its hundredth anniversary in 1889 it received Lübeck's highest honour, the Gedenkmünze Bene Merenti.