Johann Hinrich Gossler

At the time the office and warehouse of the Berenberg brothers was located in a building they had inherited from their father in Gröningerstraße.

After seven years, at 22 and having completed his apprenticeship, Gossler left Hamburg to work for a company in Cadiz, and travelled extensively in Spain, Portugal, France and England.

Denmark, Spain and France had liberalized trade with their colonies in the 1760s, while the United States had been independent since the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1783.

By 1785 Gossler and his wife held an equity stake of nearly half a million Mark Banco in the company, twice as much as the brothers Johann and Paul Berenberg combined 17 years earlier.

In the 1790s the company again doubled in size, reaching an equity capital of about a million Mark Banco by the end of the century.

[3] Under the leadership of his son-in-law and his son, the company became one of the largest sugar importers on the North European market.

"[4] As was usual even for the largest merchant houses at the time, the company employed a relatively small number of people at the head office (Kontor), two to three accountants and four to six servants[5] assisting the partners, that is, at various times, Johann Hinrich Gossler, his father-in-law, his brother-in-law and his son-in-law.

The work at the head office mainly consisted of business correspondence, accounting and decisions about contracts.