Johann Heinrich Bartels

Johann Heinrich Bartels (20 May 1761 – 1 February 1850) was a scholar from Hamburg who became a city senator in 1798. He played a leading role in civic administration during the difficult years of French occupation (1806-1814). In 1820 he was elected Mayor of the city, a position which he occupied for a remarkable three decades.

Life Claes Bartels (1728–1806), the father of Johann Heinrich, was a Hamburg merchant and cake baker ("Zuckerbäcker"). He was also a leading citizen of the city, being appointed an "Oberalter" in 1797. His wife, Johann Heinrich's mother, born Katharina Maria Seelandt (1739–73), was the daughter of a Protestant minister: she died in the year of Johann Heinrich's twelfth birthday.

Bartels attended the Gymnasium (Secondary school) after which he progressed to the University of Göttingen where he studied Theology in anticipation of a career as a churchman. By the mid 1780s, however, he had come to acknowledge that he had no inner vocation to follow the career that had been mapped out for him. During the latter part of 1785 he traveled via Nuremberg, Regensburg, Vienna and Trieste before reaching Venice. In the course of his subsequent travels Bartels undertook studies that took in Archeology, Art history and Natural science.

After returning to Hamburg, Bartels worked as a lawyer. In 1798 he was elected to the senate. During the years of French occupation (1806-1814) he served as President of the Chamber of the Hamburg Imperial Court. Along with this he was a member of the Municipal Council, with responsibility for welfare and penitentiaries. As a proponent of the Hamburg Constitution of 1712 he was determined to anchor the traditional order in the hearts of the citizenry. With this in mind, he published a summary of the main points of the 1712 document, using everyday language, and adding notes to provide historical and contextual clarifications. Bartels believed that the strengths of the old constitution lay most especially in the areas of civil liberties, welfare, public order, peace and security. His text from the 1712 constitution has not, to date (2016), been subjected to historical analysis, leaving readers to rely on Bartels' 1823 edition. Bartels went on to publish further articles on Hamburg's constitutional history and law. In 1848, with revolution coming back into fashion in some quarters, Bartels was firmly opposed to the demands of the liberal-nationalist movements of the day.

Recognition In 1848 the fiftieth anniversary of Bartel's election to the Hamburg Senate was celebrated with the placing in the city library of a marble bust of him. Through this marriage Bartels became the grandfather of the politician Edward Banks.