Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer

Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer (2 February 1808 – 3 March 1887) was a jurist, journalist and natural history researcher. His zoological publications are considered to be a significant contribution to knowledge of hydroids and bryozoans.

Life

Provenance Gustav Kirchenpauer descended from the "Kirchenpauer von Kirchdorff" couple, originally from Bohemia, who had been ennobled in 1539, their son, Hans Kirchenpauer von Kirchdorf having been raised further in the hierarchy of the nobility in 1590. Hans Kirchenpauer von Kirchdorff (1613–1648) came to Hamburg as a merchant, being granted citizenship of the city at the height of the Thirty Years' War, in 1640, which meant renouncing his aristocratic title.

Gustav Kirchenpauer's own parents were the merchant Johann Georg Kirchenpauer (1773–1844) and his wife, born Anna Katharina Ruesz (1778–1811), the daughter of another merchant, Barthold Heinrich Ruesz (1728–1811). Kirchenpauer's paternal grandfather, Johann David Kirchenpauer (1736–1798), was a merchant based for many years in Arkhangelsk. Kirchenpauer and his two remaining brothers were sent to live with Jacob von Krause who was married to their father's sister, Julia (and thereby, by marriage, the Kirchenpauer boys' uncle). The extended family fled to London during the Autumn of 1812 to avoid the French invasion, but were able to return the next summer. In 1826 he transferred to the city's university where he studied jurisprudence and civil law, also joining the student fraternity.

Hamburg In 1832 Kirchenpauer received Hamburg citizenship which was a prerequisite for working in the city as a lawyer. On 9 July 1832 he was authorised as a Hamburg lawyer, continuing to be listed as such till 1843. In parallel with his legal work, he worked as a journalist. His name appeared on numerous opinion pieces: he was a committed advocate of Free trade, a subject much in the news at the time. Because of his free trade stance, in February 1840 he was made librarian and, simultaneously, secretary of the Hamburg Commercial (forerunner of the city's Chamber of Commerce).

Senator The senate mandated him to represent the city in renegotiations covering the important , intended to update an act originally dated 21 June 1821. The act was in urgent need of modification due to changed usages and the widespread acceptance that tolls on shipping both inhibited economic growth and ran counter to the increasingly mainstream free trade principals of the time. The renegotiations resulted in the so-called "Additional Act" ("Additionalakte") of 13 April 1844 which partly replaced and partly extended the previous provisions, but at this stage some tolls for shipping remained in place.

In 1849 he was a member of the "Nine man Commission" ("Neuner-Kommission") created by the senate (Hamburg finally got its new constitution in 1860. He retained the office till 29 August 1864. Kirchenpauer continued with these studies after returning to Hamburg in 1864: between 1862 and 1884 he would publish six papers on hydroids, describing eight new nominal genera and seventy-seven new nominal hydroid species.

The output of this self-taught scientist caught the attention of the academic establishment and on 7 April 1875 he found himself inducted into the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences (" Sacri Romani Imperii Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum"), remaining a member till his death in 1887.

Mayor In 1868 Gustav Kirchenpauer was elected junior mayor of Hamburg. Mayoral terms lasted only a year, but the next year he served as the city's senior mayor: between 1869 and 1887 he served in total seven times as the junior or senior Mayor of Hamburg. His focus was on the preservation of local sovereignty within the new German state. One matter over which there could be no compromise involved the currency. Back in 1619, taking inspiration from Amsterdam and Venice, Hamburg had been the first state in the German region to introduce a clearing bank structure, and the Hamburg senators, led by Kirchenpauer, saw the city's silver-based Hamburg mark, subdivided into sixteen shillings, in turn subdivided into twelve pence, as key to the city's centuries of commercial success and prosperity. The senators repeatedly found reasons to postpone substituting the gold-based German gold mark, which they feared would deal a fatal blow to Hamburg's sovereignty.

Juliane's father Johann Krause was also a younger brother to Jacob von Krause (1775–1857), husband to Kirchenpauer's aunt and the man in whose Saint Petersburg home Kirchenpauer and his brothers had grown up while their own father traveled for his business. In addition to fostering the three Kirchenpauer boys, the sons of Julia's brother, Johann Georg, Jacob von Krause and his wife Julia had also, a few years later, looked after Robert and Juliane Kruse, the children of Jacob's brother Johann.

The marriage of Gustav Heinrich and Juliane Dorothea Kirchenpauer produced three recorded children: Gustav Jakob Kirchenpauer (1847–1914) became an architect. Ulrich Kirchenpauer (1859–1905) became an army officer. Flora Kirchenpauer married Hermann Stannius (1842–1912) who was at one stage he German consul in Smyrna (Izmir).